Consortium of Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disease Researchers

Project Summary/Abstract: This Consortium of Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Researchers (CEGIR) study will enroll approximately 150families to assess how SARS-COV-2 differentially affects children with Eosinophilic GastrointestinalDisorders (EGIDs) compared to children without these disorders. The proposed work is part of the largerHuman Epidemiology and Response to SARS-CoV-2 (HEROS) study that allows a comparison betweenchildren with atopic conditions and children without those conditions. Although asthma has not beenidentified as a clear risk factor for severe COVID-19 disease, there is evidence that children with asthmaand other atopic conditions have increased susceptibility to viral respiratory infections (Esquivel etal, AJRCCM, PMC5649984) and that viral respiratory infections may result in worsening of underlyingairway disease (Jartti et al, J Allergy Clin Immunol, PMID 28987219). No data currently exist as towhether this is true for SARS-CoV-2 infection or whether allergic airway disease could beprotective. Enrolled families will participate for 6 months completing surveys and biological samplecollections. These children and their families are already enrolled in the CEGIR NIH funded studies andtherefore will overcome many challenges for clinical study implementation. This proposed workremains in scope to the parent award and is responsive to the NOT-AI-20-031.