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各地的570个家庭中招募了近1500人。招聘是由来自48个全科诊所的54名研究护士组成的专职小组进行的。这项研究收集了有价值的信息(以前所未有的规模)，为流感如何在社区传播提供了新的令人兴奋的见解。到目前为止，我们的调查结果表明有必要继续这项工作。我们将在头两年建立的强大基础设施的基础上再接再厉，以便进一步调查我们的成果，并利用机会探索新的问题。我们建议邀请流感观察第一年和第二年的参与者在2008/09冬季期间参加修改后的重复研究。新的目标包括检查人们对流感的免疫反应是否随着时间的推移而稳定，以及感染一种流感是否可以防止你在未来几年感染另一种类型的流感。除了流感，我们还对呼吸道病毒感兴趣。这些都是导致许多人在冬天生病的原因。我们将测量这些病毒的数量和类型，并看看它们产生的症状有何不同。最近对欧洲和英国流行的流感类型进行监测的工作发现了一种抗药性流感。我们有机会研究这一点，并提供关于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，并允许我们从第一年开始更详细地探索发现。我们将研究公共交通工具的使用、家庭温度和湿度是否会影响感染流感的几率。与普遍认为的相反，我们发现许多感染流感的人没有症状。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个部分从一开始就阻止你感染流感。流感观察研究是国内和国际上的宝贵资源，将继续提供重要信息，为卫生政策、药物和疫苗的发展提供信息。

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.