EPPICC

What is this study about?

EPPICC’s programme of work encompasses individual patient data meta-analyses, and other observational studies of infections in children, with a special focus on the long-term effectiveness and safety of new treatments.

This programme focuses on scientific questions requiring a large sample size of patients which the contributing cohorts cannot answer individually and/or which do not overlap with existing projects or collaborations between participating cohorts. Current infections of interest include HIV, HCV, tuberculosis and COVID-19.

EPPICC forms part of the Penta Global Paediatric Research Network. It is coordinated at University College London (UCL), jointly by the MRC Clinical Trials Unit and the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. 

Further details of the EPPICC paediatric studies can be found in the EPPICC study record.

EPPICC is part of the Collaborative Initiative for Paediatric HIV Education and Research (CIPHER) Global Cohort Collaboration which brings together the largest collaboration of paediatric and adolescent HIV observational cohort networks to date. This collaboration allows us to explore trends in a range of outcomes such as immune status (CD4) and growth among children and adolescents with HIV across the geographic regions (Crichton et al. and Jesson et al.)

One of the studies recently completed within EPPICC is the ‘COVID-19 in children and young people living with HIV: an EPPICC-CIPHER global cohort collaboration (short name: EPPICC COVID-19). The study was one of the first to assess the impact of COVID-19 on children and adolescents living with HIV across Europe, showing low incidence of COVID-19 diagnosis and among the cases identified none had severe COVID-19 disease (Chappell et al.) The project included a SARS-CoV-2 antibody study in children, adolescents and young adults living with HIV in Europe and South Africa, which found that a high proportion of participants with no record of SARS CoV-2 infection or vaccination had antibodies to the virus, suggesting many participants had mild or asymptomatic infection (Jackson et al.).

EPPICC has ongoing studies assessing the long-term effectiveness and safety of dolutegravir and tenofovir alafenamide in children and adolescents living with HIV across Europe and Thailand, using real-world data (Crichton et al.).

Type of study

Observational study

Who is funding the study?

EPPICC has received funding from industry (e.g. ViiV Healthcare, Gilead, AbbVie) and the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under EuroCoord grant agreement number 260694 and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement number 825579.

The EPPICC COVID-19 project was funded by a competitive grant from ViiV Healthcare.