Observational Research in Childhood Infectious Diseases (ORChID): a dynamic birth cohort study

Lambert, Stephen Bernard; Ware, Robert S; Cook, Anne L; Maguire, Frances A; Whiley, David M; Bialasiewicz, Seweryn; Mackay, Ian M; Wang, David; Sloots, Theo P; Nissen, Michael D; Grimwood, Keith

The endpoints of the first phase of this study are (1) documentation of clinical and epidemiological data from children with a variety of syndromic illnesses which, along with exhaustive diagnostic testing using sensitive molecular methods, will allow for detailed identification and characterisation of pathogen-disease associations, (2) establishing a well characterised collection of stored specimens with pathogen-testing results, which will be invaluable for new virus discovery, and (3) determining the pathogenesis of newly identified agents from the human respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts and better defining the role of known pathogens, such as HRVs, detected in asymptomatic children.