Raising awareness through press coverage and sharing a family's story

Raising awareness through press coverage and sharing a family's story

The team at University Hospital Southampton (UHS) explored an exciting avenue to boost study participation, by raising awareness of a leading cause of serious infections in babies and a vaccine being tested to combat it.

About the study

In July 2022, a study was launched at UHS to test a vaccine to guard against Group B strep and look at the best time to offer this vaccine to pregnant women.

Group B strep infection is responsible for nearly half of all life-threatening infections during the first three months of life. It also sometimes causes miscarriages, premature births and stillbirths.

The vaccine is being developed by the Danish company MinervaX. The hope is that, by giving it to women at the right time in their pregnancy, it will protect their baby during pregnancy and birth.

Recruitment

Participants were required to start the study at around 20 weeks of pregnancy and were followed up with for six months after delivery. There were 12 hospital visits in total including a screening visit.

Dr Chrissie Jones, Southampton study lead, said: “Media coverage of this trial helped to raise awareness of the importance of Group B strep infection in young infants. This is crucial to recruitment as we were inviting women to take part in study to test a vaccine against an infection that they might not have heard about before.”

Press coverage 

In 2018, Olympic sprinter Iwan Thomas nearly lost his son Teddy to Group B strep. He was admitted to Princess Anne Hospital based at UHS where he stayed for 10 days while being looked after by staff.

To support recruitment, teams at UHS arranged for Iwan to return to the Princess Anne Hospital with his son Teddy. He featured on BBC Morning Live in Autumn 2022, speaking about his support for the study.

In the clip, Iwan spoke to researchers leading the study and interviewed Jen Dawkins, one of Southampton’s first participants in the new research.

“It’s hugely exciting to see the progress of this new vaccine,” Iwan said. “If this work saves just one family from losing a child to this awful infection, then it will all have been worth it.”

Study team comments 

Dr Jones added: “A safe and effective Group B Strep vaccine would be a game-changer for newborn infants, both in the UK and globally.

“This is a significant infection in newborn babies, that can be life-threatening and also cause long-term problems in those babies who recover from the infection.

“A vaccine against Group B Strep would be a massive step forward in our ability to protect newborn infants from serious infection.”

Conclusion 

The study was delivered at the NIHR Southampton Clinical Research Facility, part of University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, and St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in London.

Results of the study are expected in 2023.