The Swiss HIV Cohort Study (SHCS), established in 1988, is a systematic longitudinal study enrolling HIV-infected individuals in Switzerland. It is a collaboration of all Swiss University Hospital infectious disease outpatient clinics, two large cantonal hospitals, all with affiliated laboratories, and with affiliated smaller hospitals and private physicians carrying for HIV patients.
The Swiss Mother and Child HIV Cohort Study (MoCHiV) is integrated into the SHCS. It aims at preventing mother to child transmission and enrolls HIV-infected pregnant women and their children.
The SHCS involves practically all researchers being active in patient-oriented HIV research in Switzerland.
The clinics can delegate recruitment of participants and follow-up visits to other outpatient clinics or to specialized private physicians, provided that the requirements of the protocol can be entirely fulfilled and controlled. The laboratories can contract other laboratories for some of the analyses.