Flu Watch 2008-09

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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.