Now the Rhineland study intends to help clarify questions such as: “What are the circumstances that lead to some people becoming ill with the corona virus while others have virtually no symptoms?” To conduct a representative survey, information is required from a great number of people about their state of health and their living conditions. The Rhineland Study already has this kind of data available as it has been collecting information since 2016 from people in the Bonn area. They have been repeatedly invited by researchers to undergo extensive medical and fitness tests, and answer questions about lifestyle and environmental influences. The special COVID-19 programme, for which the participants are asked to give a blood sample, has now been running for a good two weeks. These samples are examined at the Institute of Virology at the Charité hospital in Berlin under the direction of the virologist Christian Drosten.

The blood test is free of charge and confirms whether you are or have been infected with corona virus. But of course, this only applies to the previous participants in the study, for whom the relevant data is already available. The DZNE focuses mainly on brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and depression. “We hope that we already have enough data to enable us to draw conclusions,” said Monique Breteler, head of the Rhineland study. There are few studies that can already draw on so much information, the researcher said. This meant that the virologist Drosten was quickly persuaded to analyse the blood samples with his team. In Berlin, the Elisa test will also be carried out on the samples to determine whether the blood contains antibodies against the coronavirus. The scientists in Berlin are specialists in these areas and have the capacities to examine blood samples in such large quantities.

More information (German only): www.rheinland-studie.de.

(Original text: kpo, Translation: Caroline Kusch)