1st February 2023

New study to help save infants’ lives launches at UHW Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital

A new study called HARMONIE will investigate the efficiency of a new treatment against the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). RSV is extremely common in babies and children and can be life-threatening as there is no specific treatment or vaccine for it now.

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)

Spread by coughing and sneezing, RSV affects about 20,000 infants in Wales every year and causes a mild, cold-like illness most of the time. However, in some cases it can lead to more severe lung problems such as bronchiolitis and pneumonia.

Katie Edwards from Cardiff, whose twin boys both got bronchiolitis from RSV when they were six weeks old and had to be admitted to hospital by ambulance, said:

It was an incredibly worrying time and really hard seeing our babies so poorly. They went first to the ward and then to the High Dependency Unit in the Paediatric ITU for interventions to support their breathing. We felt so helpless watching them distressed and struggling to breathe.”

Investigator and Health and Care Research Wales Specialty Lead for Children and Young People, Dr Philip Connor, said:

We hope this antibody treatment will reduce the significant burden and trauma that hospitalisation of an infant with RSV places on the individual and their family.”

The start of the study

The HARMONIE study, launching at Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales, will include as many as 28,860 babies from the UK, France and Germany. During this trial, a new antibody treatment will be administered by a jab in the thigh to healthy babies up to 12 months old. The participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups, one receiving the new treatment and another which will be given a standard care.

Dr Nicola Williams, National Director of Support and Delivery at Health and Care Research Wales, said:

This study is extremely timely as we approach the cold and flu season. We are pleased to be able to offer parents the opportunity to consider this important study for their baby, and we are proud of our specialist children’s research nurses and health professionals who support parents and children to take part in these studies.”

We encourage as many parents as possible to take part in this study to help protect their child this winter.

For more information or to sign up to participate in this study, please visit HARMONIE study website, email the HARMONIE team or call 02921 847816/840366.