Sheffield participants enter COVID-19 treatment trials for patients over 50

They will be taking part in the PRINCIPLE platform trial, led by Oxford University, which will evaluate if potential treatments for coronavirus are effective for people over 50 years old when prescribed during the early stages of the illness.

This age group are particularly vulnerable to complications for coronavirus.

There are no known cures for coronavirus, so the trial will focus on drugs already available, like hydroxychloroquine, to check if they can help prevent older people becoming more seriously ill and prevent the need for hospitalisation.

The trial is recruiting participants exclusively from a cluster of eight GP surgeries who are members of the Sheffield Primary Care Research (SPCR) group.

The SPCR is led by Dr Jon Dickson, a Senior Clinical Lecturer from the University of Sheffield’s Academic Unit of Primary Medical Care and GP at Ecclesfield Group Practice.

Dr Dickson said: “We know that people over the age of 50 with coronavirus, especially those with pre-existing conditions, are at higher risk of more serious outcomes. They are more likely to become seriously unwell, need hospitalisation and unfortunately have higher rates of fatality.

“The trial will prescribe clinically available drugs that have been identified as potential treatments to patients suspected of having coronavirus who are at an early stage of the illness, and assess how effective they are at reducing the number of hospitalisations and deaths within this high-risk group.”

The PRINCIPLE platform trial is one of three national priority platform trials in the UK testing hydroxychloroquine, which is a well known drug used for conditions such as malaria and arthritis but is not currently used to treat this kind of infection.

One group of participants will be given the drug treatment, and a second group will be treated using the current best available NHS guidance for at-home recovery.

Sheffield SCPR hopes to recruit up to 100 participants to the trial. The trial is planning to recruit up to 3,000 patients nationally.