about SHCS
In the early 1980s, when the first persons living with HIV (PLWH) were treated in Switzerland, the university hospitals Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne and Zurich, and the cantonal hospital St. Gallen began registering PLWH and storing plasma and cell samples.
In 1984, the Zurich HIV Cohort Study was founded at the University Hospital Zurich. Prof. Ruedi Lüthy, co-founder of the Zurich cohort, succeeded in winning over the other hospitals for a nationwide cohort, so that the Swiss HIV Cohort Study (SHCS) was established in 1988. All the data collected so far in the different hospitals were compiled in the SHCS.
The two studies HIV in pregnancy and HIV in children were integrated into the SHCS under the name Swiss Mother and Child HIV Cohort Study (MoCHiV). To date, almost 22’000 participants have been enrolled and followed in university and regional hospitals, as well as in private practices. In recent years, over 80% of all persons with newly diagnosed HIV were included.
The overarching aim of the SHCS is to improve health of PLWH through clinical, epidemiological and basic science studies, and to strengthen collaborative and transdisciplinary research In bi-annual study visits, the SHCS collects in-depth information on clinical, laboratory and socio-demographic parameters, using an elaborated high-quality workflow for semi-automated data entry.
The exceptional SHCS biobank with >2 Mio plasma samples, viable cells and DNA, and the viral and host genetics databases provide a unique platform for innovative research which is recognized and used internationally by thousands of researchers. The very broad SHCS research agenda includes studies on HIV therapy, coinfections, comorbidities, HIV cure, women’s health, pregnancy and childhood, and crosscutting themes such as Public and Patient Involvement, gender, and HIV elimination. This research is performed by users across a wide range of disciplines, including the very productive SHCS Young Researchers’ Group, and resulted in >1’400 highly cited publications in leading international journals (www.shcs.ch/publications).
The SHCS infrastructure constantly provides numerous services to the community, health care providers and public health authorities, as an important contributor to the excellent quality of HIV care in Switzerland
The corporate form of the SHCS is a simple partnership and the collaboration is written down in the SHCS Registry Network Agreement.
From 1988 to 2000, the SHCS was funded by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH/BAG). In 2000, the SHCS was transferred to the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), which has since then been the major funding organization. Additional funding originates from the SHCS research foundation, the SHCS association, the Federal Office of Public Health and occasionally also from international collaborations.