Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/Health+agency+wants+H1N1+swine+study/1965840/story.html
Health agency wants you for H1N1 swine flu study
More men, seniors needed for landmark research
By Shelley Page, The Ottawa CitizenSeptember 5, 2009 8:51
Remember those sniffles you had a while back? Was it a cold or swine flu? The Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion wants to find out.
About 150 Eastern Ontario residents have already signed up to take part in a landmark, provincewide study on the prevalence of the H1N1 virus. The agency needs about 150 volunteers from this area, mostly young men and women, and seniors.
Dr. Natasha Crowcroft, director of surveillance and epidemiology for the agency and the study's principal investigator, wants to determine how widespread the H1N1 flu virus has been, especially leading into the fall flu season.
"I think the chances are there are an awful lot of people who have had this infection without knowing about it. It would be good to know," Crowcroft said.
"There have been lots of statements that this has been a mild pandemic. In truth, until we know how many people are infected in the population, you don't have a very good handle." She said the information drawn from this study will help predict how vulnerable Ontarians will be to H1N1 over the coming months.
"One of the curious things about H1N1 flu ... is some people (who are infected) hardly get anything, just a runny nose and they shrug it off. Other people get really, really sick, they die from it or spend lots of time in intensive care." Crowcroft said the information from the labs and hospitals about H1N1 provides a misleading picture of what is happening in the general population. "That's all about the really sick people." She said it is not known whether a person with antibodies has full immunity to swine flu.
"We think if you have antibodies, you have some degree of protection, but what we don't know is whether you still might benefit from vaccinating." Having antibodies to H1N1 may mean that a person has some protection against the virus and is less likely to become infected again.
If the provincewide study shows that 30 per cent of the population has already caught the virus "then we won't be quite so worried going into the winter," Crowcroft said, adding, however, that she doubts the infection rate is that high.
If 10 per cent of the population has already been infected, that will suggest "enough people already infected that it will slow down the spread." The agency needs 3,000 volunteers from across the province. About half have come forward, most of them women.
In fact, women aged 30 to 64 in all seven regions of the province are no longer needed for the study. The Eastern region also has its full complement of men in that age bracket, but women and men aged 18 to 29, and seniors of both sexes over the age of 65, are still needed.
Crowcroft said men are reluctant volunteers and seniors have been slow to come forward. "We're not reaching them maybe because we're doing this as an online study," she said, speculating it's possible not all seniors have access to the Internet.
She said the results of the test will be available to the participants.
At a press conference Friday, Ottawa public health officials urged Ottawa residents volunteer for this study.
Information about the study is available at https://h1n1study.
oahpp.ca
- - -
Flu prevention advice
Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq and Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, want to share important information with Canadian parents about how to help protect their children from the flu as they go back to school.
All forms of influenza, including H1N1 , are spread through coughing and sneezing.
The virus is also spread through contact with surfaces such as counters and doorknobs contaminated with the virus by an infected person.
To help protect your children from H1N1, there are a number of steps you can take, including:
- Teaching your children to wash their hands frequently and thoroughly with soap and warm water, and how to use hand sanitizer when soap and water are not available. Lead by example.
- Showing your children how to cough and sneeze into their arms or sleeves, or a tissue, rather than their hands. Teach them to dispose of tissues immediately after use and to wash their hands after coughing and sneezing.
- Keeping household surfaces clean.
And to help protect others from infection if your child is sick, try the following:
- Do not send your child to day camp or other activities, like sports lesson or playgroups.
Health agency wants you for H1N1 swine flu study
More men, seniors needed for landmark research
By Shelley Page, The Ottawa CitizenSeptember 5, 2009 8:51
Remember those sniffles you had a while back? Was it a cold or swine flu? The Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion wants to find out.
About 150 Eastern Ontario residents have already signed up to take part in a landmark, provincewide study on the prevalence of the H1N1 virus. The agency needs about 150 volunteers from this area, mostly young men and women, and seniors.
Dr. Natasha Crowcroft, director of surveillance and epidemiology for the agency and the study's principal investigator, wants to determine how widespread the H1N1 flu virus has been, especially leading into the fall flu season.
"I think the chances are there are an awful lot of people who have had this infection without knowing about it. It would be good to know," Crowcroft said.
"There have been lots of statements that this has been a mild pandemic. In truth, until we know how many people are infected in the population, you don't have a very good handle." She said the information drawn from this study will help predict how vulnerable Ontarians will be to H1N1 over the coming months.
"One of the curious things about H1N1 flu ... is some people (who are infected) hardly get anything, just a runny nose and they shrug it off. Other people get really, really sick, they die from it or spend lots of time in intensive care." Crowcroft said the information from the labs and hospitals about H1N1 provides a misleading picture of what is happening in the general population. "That's all about the really sick people." She said it is not known whether a person with antibodies has full immunity to swine flu.
"We think if you have antibodies, you have some degree of protection, but what we don't know is whether you still might benefit from vaccinating." Having antibodies to H1N1 may mean that a person has some protection against the virus and is less likely to become infected again.
If the provincewide study shows that 30 per cent of the population has already caught the virus "then we won't be quite so worried going into the winter," Crowcroft said, adding, however, that she doubts the infection rate is that high.
If 10 per cent of the population has already been infected, that will suggest "enough people already infected that it will slow down the spread." The agency needs 3,000 volunteers from across the province. About half have come forward, most of them women.
In fact, women aged 30 to 64 in all seven regions of the province are no longer needed for the study. The Eastern region also has its full complement of men in that age bracket, but women and men aged 18 to 29, and seniors of both sexes over the age of 65, are still needed.
Crowcroft said men are reluctant volunteers and seniors have been slow to come forward. "We're not reaching them maybe because we're doing this as an online study," she said, speculating it's possible not all seniors have access to the Internet.
She said the results of the test will be available to the participants.
At a press conference Friday, Ottawa public health officials urged Ottawa residents volunteer for this study.
Information about the study is available at https://h1n1study.
oahpp.ca
- - -
Flu prevention advice
Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq and Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, want to share important information with Canadian parents about how to help protect their children from the flu as they go back to school.
All forms of influenza, including H1N1 , are spread through coughing and sneezing.
The virus is also spread through contact with surfaces such as counters and doorknobs contaminated with the virus by an infected person.
To help protect your children from H1N1, there are a number of steps you can take, including:
- Teaching your children to wash their hands frequently and thoroughly with soap and warm water, and how to use hand sanitizer when soap and water are not available. Lead by example.
- Showing your children how to cough and sneeze into their arms or sleeves, or a tissue, rather than their hands. Teach them to dispose of tissues immediately after use and to wash their hands after coughing and sneezing.
- Keeping household surfaces clean.
And to help protect others from infection if your child is sick, try the following:
- Do not send your child to day camp or other activities, like sports lesson or playgroups.
