International Cohort Consortium of Infectious Disease (RESPOND)
The International Cohort Consortium of Infectious Disease (RESPOND) was formed in 2017 as a prospective, multi-cohort collaboration for the study of infectious diseases, with a particular focus on people with HIV.
RESPOND was founded upon the groundwork laid by outstanding European HIV cohort collaborations such as EuroSIDA, the Collaboration of Observational HIV Epidemiological Research Europe (COHERE), and Data Collection on Adverse events of Anti-HIV Drugs (D:A:D) studies, and utilizes a similar, well-established infrastructure.
The RESPOND consortium involves 19 cohorts and comprises around 44,000 individuals with HIV, including 29,000 under active follow-up.
RESPOND operates under a shared governance structure and provides a flexible, coordinated research framework using a common data model. All collaborators can contribute to the evolving scientific agenda by accessing a shared data pool. Together, these dynamic features facilitate responses to a broad range of unmet research needs.
The large size of RESPOND, its heterogeneous study population with participants from across the whole of Europe and Australia, and the high level of data quality — including centrally validated standardized clinical event definitions — ensure that the findings are robust and generalizable to a broader population of people with HIV.
RESPOND aims to address clinically relevant research questions, including but not limited to the risk and outcomes of non-AIDS comorbidities and the possible relationship to long-term ART exposure; outcomes and treatment of viral hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), and tuberculosis (TB) co-infections, and to support public health initiatives.
RESPOND is an open network that welcomes additional cohorts provided that predefined criteria are met, including a minimum number of participants, a designated data manager, and adequate data quantity and quality.
For more information about RESPOND, please contact the RESPOND Secretariat at: respond.rigshospitalet@regionh.dk
RESPOND collects data from the following countries and regions:
For a full list of cohorts involved in the study, please visit the RESPOND collaborating cohorts and partners.
RESPOND structure:
