RSV Awareness Week: From prevention to preparedness

This RSV Awareness Week, we’re highlighting how Ecraid supports research on RSV and other respiratory diseases to help protect people across generations while strengthening Europe’s research capacity and networks to respond to future outbreaks.

Protecting mothers and infants

Protection against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection can begin before birth. The PIPELINE-RSV International Trial, sponsored by Penta Foundation, compares strategies for infant RSV prevention, including maternal vaccination during pregnancy and infant monoclonal antibodies. This is the first trial to run through the EU-funded PIPELINE project in which Ecraid is a key partner. Within PIPELINE, Ecraid supports building a sustainable European research network that can respond rapidly to future infectious disease challenges. 

Building readiness in the community

Primary care is often where people first seek help for a respiratory infection, making it an important setting for both research and preparedness. The POS-ARI-PC-001 study, a collaboration with Sanofi, conducts year-round research on respiratory viruses, examining medically attended RSV, hMPV, parainfluenza virus and rhinovirus infections in older and higher-risk adults. The ECRAID-Prime adaptive platform trial complements this work by evaluating potential treatments for respiratory illnesses in adults in the community. 

Collaboration is key, and these EU-funded initiatives are carried out through a close partnership between Ecraid, UMC Utrecht, and the University of Oxford within the ECRAID-Base and ECRAID-Prime projects. This brings together expertise in primary care research and clinical trial delivery to support study sites across Europe, from study start-up and site management to monitoring and operational delivery, helping to strengthen a research-ready primary care network for respiratory infections and future outbreaks. 

Exploring new ways to protect older adults

As people grow older, respiratory infections such as RSV can pose a more serious health risk. Ecraid is contributing to a global study evaluating a new investigational vaccine against RSV and hMPV in adults aged 60 years and older. The study is assessing whether a single combination vaccine can safely and effectively protect against two important causes of respiratory illness.

Research today, preparedness for tomorrow

From preventing illness early in life to protecting people as they grow older, these studies show how clinical research can make a difference today, while strengthening our readiness for tomorrow.

And with One Health Day on 3 November, it is a timely reminder that preparedness does not stop at national borders, individual diseases or individual studies. It depends on connected research networks, sustainable infrastructure and the ability to rapidly generate evidence when and where it is needed.
 

The PIPELINE, ECRAID-Base and ECRAID-Prime projects are funded by the European Union.

More information

•    PIPELINE Project and the PIPELINE-RSV trial
•    ECRAID-Base Perpetual Observation Studies 
•    ECRAID-Prime adaptive platform trial in primary care
•    RSV and hMPV investigational vaccine study