What’s the STORY?

What’s the STORY (Serum Testing Of Representative Youngsters)?

The Oxford Vaccine Group is researching a new way of surveying how well protected we are from infectious diseases by collecting blood samples from people who represent different groups across society. It’s an urgent public health study, with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust as one of the sites, recruiting at the Children’s Research Facility at St Mary’s Hospital.

One of the ways our bodies develop protection against infectious diseases is by developing antibodies, either after an infection or following a vaccination. We would like to do a blood test to measure the antibody levels against important diseases, including those that are vaccine preventable.

We would like to take a blood sample from people aged from birth to-24 years of age to look at their antibody levels against important infectious diseases. We are particularly interested in Group C meningococcus (MenC) and diphtheria and in the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). This would help us understand whether we need to make any changes to the UK vaccine schedule, and tell us about the number of infections with COVID-19 in the UK.