Community acquired acute respiratory tract infections are the most frequent acute disease for consulting community health care and the most common syndrome for which unnecessary antibiotics are prescribed. As a disease with respiratory symptoms, COVID-19 has the potential to increase the incidence of antimicrobial resistance. On the other hand, the COVID-19 pandemic is revealing the value of diagnostics for infectious diseases. VALUE-Dx is participating in the efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in collaboration with Rapid European COVID-19 Emergency Research response (RECOVER)

On 11 March 2020, the University of Antwerp has launched RECOVER, in collaboration with 9 international partners. The launch comes in response to the impact of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Europe. This project was selected for funding by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 research framework and builds on many years of investment by the European Commission in clinical research preparedness for epidemic response. The overall goal of RECOVER is to understand the COVID-19 pandemic through clinical research in order to transform patient care and public health responses.

RECOVER’s Primary Care Studies are leveraging the work done by the VALUE-Dx Work Package (WP) 4, such as the Point Prevalence Audit Survey (PPAS). This research aims to contribute to informing the planning, policy, communication, and clinical management of the COVID-19 pandemic. VALUE-Dx conducted an Extended PPAS in 16 countries to capture information from consultations and care provided to patients presenting in primary care with symptoms of an acute respiratory tract infection during the COVID-19 pandemic. This work is drawing on the first PPAS that was done in January and February 2020, as part of VALUE-Dx WP4 work in 18 European countries.