Idisba to carry out Covid-19 Research. Archive photo. | R.D.

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400,000 euros of Government money is to be spent on a Covid-19 research project by the Institute of Health Research in the Balearic Islands, or Idisba.

The Institute is financing 15 projects aimed at strengthening the fight against coronavirus.

The Government initially allocated 300,000 euros to the project but the Committee of Experts decided to fund 12 projects focused on various areas of research.

Several proposals have been considered in a bid to improve rapid diagnostic tests, including the development of disinfection products for people or surfaces and innovative ideas that contribute to the monitoring and control of the disease.

An extra 100,000 euros has been donated to Idisba to finance three additional projects.

One of the new projects is being led by Dr Natalia Martínez Pomar, who's a Specialist Physician from the Immunology Service at Son Espases University Hospital and Researcher of the 'Study of the immune response in human pathology'. The main objective of her proposal is to identify genetic biomarkers of risk to develop macrophage activation syndrome observed in a subgroup of Covid-19 patients.

A second project, which is led by Dr Francisco Javier Fanjul and Dr María Vila, is based on the study of seroprevalence of infection in pregnant women and subsequent analysis of its impact on the development of pregnancy during a 12-month period in Public Hospitals on the Islands, with two serological extractions; one in the first trimester of gestation and the other at delivery. The aim of the study is to analyse the possible impact of both the prevalent infection and the incidence of Covid-19 on the development of pregnancy.

A third project is led by Ruth Diez, who's a Paediatrician from Clínica Rotger and focuses on a descriptive surveillance study of the symptomatic and epidemiological profile of coronavirus infection in paediatric patients aged 14 and under who receive Primary Care treatment at Paediatric Emergencies at Son Llàtzer Hospital, Son Espases Hospital and Clínica Rotger between July and December 2020.