Flu Watch 2008-09

在2006/07和2007/08的冬季，流感观察研究成功地在英格兰570个家庭招募了近1500人。招聘是由一个致力于从48个全科诊所的54名研究护士。这项研究收集了有价值的信息（以前从未见过的规模），为流感如何在社区中传播提供了新的令人兴奋的见解。我们迄今的研究结果表明，有必要继续这项工作。我们将在前两年建立的强大基础设施的基础上进一步研究我们的结果并利用机会探索新问题。我们建议邀请第1年和第2年的流感观察参与者在2008/09冬季参加修改后的重复研究。新的目标包括研究人们是否？人对流感的免疫反应随时间的推移是稳定的，感染一种流感是否能保护你在以后的几年里不会感染另一种流感。我们对流感以外的呼吸道病毒也感兴趣。这些是造成许多人在冬季生病的原因。我们将测量这些病毒的数量和类型，并研究它们产生的症状如何不同。最近对欧洲和英国流行的流感类型进行的监测工作发现了一种耐药性流感。我们有机会研究这一点，并提供有关它在社区中有多常见以及症状的类型或严重程度是否不同的新信息。流感观察的第三年将加强我们回答现有问题的能力，并使我们能够更详细地探索第一年的发现。我们会研究公共交通工具的使用、家居的温度和湿度是否会影响感染流感的机会。与流行的看法相反，我们发现许多人感染流感没有症状。我们将研究免疫系统如何防止某些人出现症状。我们还将调查免疫系统的哪一部分可以防止您首先感染流感。 流感观察研究是国家和国际的宝贵资源，将继续为卫生政策、药物和疫苗的制定提供重要信息。

During the winter seasons of 2006/07 and 2007/08, the Flu Watch study successfully recruited almost 1500 people in 570 homes throughout England. Recruitment was undertaken by a committed group of 54 research nurses from a total of 48 General Practice clinics. This study has collected valuable information (on a scale that has not previously been seen) which is providing new and exciting insights into how flu is spread in the community. Our findings so far demonstrate the need to continue this work. We will build on the strong infrastructure established in the first two years in order to further investigate our results and exploit the opportunity to explore new questions. We propose to invite Flu Watch participants from years 1 & 2 to take part in a modified repeat of the study during the 2008/09 winter season. New aims include examining whether people?s immune response to the flu is stable over time and whether being infected with one type of flu protects you from getting a different type of flu in later years. We are also interested in respiratory viruses other than flu. These are responsible for making many people ill during the winter. We will measure the number and types of these viruses and look at how the symptoms they produce differ. Recent surveillance work monitoring the types of flu circulating across Europe and in the UK have discovered a drug resistant type of influenza. We have the opportunity to study this and provide new information about how common it is in the community and whether the types or severity of symptoms differ. A third year of Flu Watch will strengthen our ability to answer our existing questions and allow us to explore findings from the first year in more detail. We will examine whether public transport use, household temperature and humidity affect the chances of getting flu. Contrary to popular belief we have found that many people who catch flu have no symptoms. We will study how the immune system prevents the development of symptoms in some people. We will also investigate which part of the immune system prevents you from catching flu in the first place. The flu watch study is a valuable resource both nationally and internationally, and will continue to provide important information to inform the development of health policy, drugs and vaccines.