CHIPS

Collaborative HIV Paediatric Study

CHIPS was a multi-centre cohort study of children living with HIV in the UK and Ireland

What was this study about?

Until March 2020, CHIPS was the national surveillance system for paediatric HIV in the UK and Ireland. It was set up to monitor the clinical care of children with HIV, provide quality of care indicators, and support NHS commissioning of services.

The main CHIPS surveillance study closed at the end of March 2021. CHIPS has been replaced by CHARS (Children’s HIV and AIDS Reporting System), a secure online reporting surveillance service coordinated by the Integrated Screening Outcomes Surveillance Service (ISOSS) team also at UCL which commenced in January 2022. CHARS is commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvement. The CHIPS team will still respond to queries relating to historical data or ongoing publications but if you have any queries relating to future reporting, please do not hesitate to contact the ISOSS team.

CHIPS remains open to seven clinics taking part in a SARS-CoV-2 antibody sub-study which is being carried out by the European Pregnancy and Paediatric Infections Cohort Collaboration (EPPICC, part of the Penta network).

What difference did this study make?

We have learnt many important things about how to care for children with HIV in the best way possible. For example, in the past we did not know if very early treatment for babies with HIV was the best approach, or whether we should wait until they started getting symptoms. However, we learnt through CHIPS and other studies that babies should be treated as soon as possible. We have also learned a lot about giving the right doses of medicines to children, and we do ongoing work checking that medicines given are safe. We have looked at longer-term outcomes of children living with HIV, including their viral load and CD4 throughout adolescence. We found that among children leaving paediatric care to the end of 2014, three quarters were on stable ART at transfer, of whom 74% had a suppressed viral load. Findings from the CHIPS study have helped to improve care for children in other countries around the world.

Type of study

Observational study

Contact details

mrcctu.chips@ucl.ac.uk

Who funded the study?

CHIPS was primarily funded by the NHS London Specialised Commissioning Group until 2020, and also received support from Abbott, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, Roche and ViiV Healthcare.

When did it take place?

CHIPS was established in April 2000 and will close completely following the completion of the SARS-CoV-2 antibody sub-study, at the end of October 2022.

Where did it take place?

CHIPS took place in all the hospitals treating children living with HIV in the UK and Ireland.

Who was included?

The National Surveillance of HIV in Pregnancy and Childhood reports children with confirmed HIV to CHIPS. For each of these children a baseline CHIPS questionnaire is sent to the respective clinic for completion. Thereafter, a follow-up questionnaire is sent to the clinic annually.

CHIPS Trial Website