WELLINGTON, New Zealand--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A group of world-leading scientists and flu researchers, led by New Zealand’s Institute of Environmental Science & Research (ESR, www.esr.cri.nz), has beaten out international competition to be awarded a five-year, multi-million dollar contract to study influenza in an effort to better understand the burden of the virus and how to prevent its spread around the world.
Funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services for the Influenza Division of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the SHIVERS (Southern Hemisphere Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Research and Surveillance) project will look at how the influenza virus and other respiratory pathogens spread through populations.
In addition to providing an extended evidence base and further answers on the epidemiology of influenza, the SHIVERS research will be used to inform public health and vaccination strategies around world in an effort to protect the most vulnerable patients and better plan for and protect against flu epidemics and pandemics, like the Swine Flu.
The successful bid was led by a team of scientists from ESR with collaborators from The Universities of Auckland and Otago and the Auckland District Health Board who began working together during the early stages of the influenza pandemic in 2009 and, as a result, were well placed to respond to the CDC’s call for applications. The New Zealand team will collaborate with Dr Richard Webby, Director at the WHO Collaborating Centre (WHOCC) at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the United States.
This multi-agency, multi-disciplinary team of scientists and researchers propose to study the autumn and winter ‘flu season’ amongst the Auckland population using New Zealand’s world leading health surveillance systems, which were highly effective in monitoring and combatting the spread of the H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic in 2009.
SHIVERS Programme Leader, ESR’s Dr Virginia Hope, says the project will allow researchers to investigate and hopefully answer some fundamental science questions about influenza, which is one of the world’s most serious infectious diseases.
“The SHIVERS project is a comprehensive investigation of influenza epidemiology, etiology and immunology as well as influenza vaccine effectiveness. One of the major themes of the SHIVERS project is to identify those factors that affect whether or not someone gets influenza, and those risk groups that influenza control measures should be targeted at.
“The end goal of this research is to provide needed data for influenza control strategies and also provide knowledge that can improve health around the world,” says Dr Hope.
“It’s a fresh look with new innovative methods and it could challenge our understanding of the influenza virus.
“The dangerous thing about the flu is that the virus is constantly changing to form new strains that we don’t have an immune response for. By tracking the new strains and looking at the flu’s contribution to serious respiratory disease we can better understand host immune responses to guide better vaccine design, non-pharmaceutical interventions and pharmaceutical preventive measures,” says Dr Hope.
New Zealand gained a ‘best in class’ international reputation for its response to the Swine Flu pandemic. This reputation, combined with geographic location, unique healthcare and data management infrastructure and world class influenza surveillance systems makes New Zealand a unique location for this type of ground-breaking, population-based research.
ESR Chair, Dr Susan Macken says the Award of the SHIVERS project to this ESR-led team of New Zealand researchers is acknowledgement of the ESR’s excellent track record of collaborating to undertake world-class science and research in New Zealand.
“A critical success factor in this bid was our capacity to work collaboratively, which allowed us to pool resources and expertise across our separate institutions,” says Dr Macken.
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Dr Virginia Hope is the Health Programme Leader at ESR NCBID and the spokesperson for ESR on the SHIVERS project.