At the IGTP TODAY
Researchers from the Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria (IIS) - Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) took part in the Consorcio CIBER congress, some of them sharing their advances during the 'flash talk' sessions.
Once again, the "Visita la recerca" program of Fundació La Marató de TV3 has successfully concluded at Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP), where a score of collaborators had the opportunity to discover firsthand the research projects supported through this charitable initiative.
_1717754567.png)
Two studies by CEEISCAT-IGTP have evaluated an online HIV and HCV self-testing strategy, demonstrating that it is effective and safe.
To mark World Hepatitis Day, the podcast 'Un Bri de Ciència' dedicates an episode to viral hepatitis, specifically focusing on Hepatitis B and C, which are considered to be the most severe types. Researcher Elisa Martró unravels what we know about these diseases and discusses her projects, both in the hospital setting and in communities, working with vulnerable populations. The podcast enhances the mission of awareness and dissemination of IGTP.
A study with people who inject drugs evaluated a minimally invasive test based on dried blood spots (DBS) for the monitoring of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The use of DBS samples for HCV RNA detection and genotyping was shown to effectively assess cure after treatment and to differentiate between reinfection and treatment failure. The results support the viability of decentralizing treatment and post-treatment monitoring for people who inject drugs, who frequently face challenges accessing the healthcare system. The study has been published in the Journal of Medical Virology.
Since 2019, around 1,000 immigrants from endemic countries have participated in a new model of diagnosis and management of viral hepatitis that has been designed by the Clinical Virology and New Diagnostic Approaches Research Group of the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP), in the Microbiology Service of the Germans Trial Hospital (headed by Dr. Elisa Martró), along with the Public and Community Health Team (eSPiC) of Drassanes-Vall d'Hebron International Health Unit.
The IGTP and the Microbiology Service of the Clinical Laboratory of the North Metropolitan Area led by the researcher Elisa Martró have been the first to carry out the complete sequencing of a sample of monkey pox virus in Spain. This is a milestone in itself, but will also be fundamental for epidemiological surveillance of the infection and the study of future outbreaks as it provides a description of the genetic material of the virus.
Scientists from the IGTP and the hospital have participated in the SeqCOVID consortium of 50 health research centres, led from Valencia. The latest study published in Nature Genetics identifies nine variants that dominated the pandemic between March and June 2020 in Spain. The Badalona team, in collaboration with the team in Valencia, detected the first case of the Alpha variant (first detected in the United Kingdom) in Catalonia in December 2020
The project is a pilot programme for the implementation and validation of the micro-elimination of Hepatitis C based on a community strategy. The validation has focussed on a migrant Pakistani population in Barcelona and the metropolitan area and is now being extended to migrants from other countries where the disease is endemic and to screening for Hepatitis B. The study unites two previously validated strategies to bring education about hepatitis (VHIR) and diagnostics (IGTP) to these vulnerable populations in the community.
In the latest installment of their work to reduce hepatitis C virus in Catalonia, and as part of the worldwide campaign to end viral hepatitis, Members of the Clinical Virology and New Diagnostic Tools Group at the IGTP have found that two diagnostic tests that can be carried out at the point of care are simple and effective methods for testing people who inject drugs, a group particlarly vulnerable to hepatitis C.
