Flu study to reduce spread of virus and boost immunity to it gets HK$50 million funding from Research Grants Council
- Classes for toddlers and young children have been abruptly cancelled for two consecutive years following a winter flu surge in Hong Kong
- Study aims to estimate speed of influenza spread and to predict epidemic’s size both before and during the outbreak
A study into ways to boost immunity to influenza and reduce its transmission has received HK$50 million funding from the Hong Kong government, the largest sum allocated to university research projects this year.
“Hong Kong suffers an influenza epidemic every year, some years bigger, some years smaller, and we don’t really understand why,” said Professor Benjamin Cowling at the University of Hong Kong, who will lead the five-year study.
“[We hope] we can have more advanced warnings of how serious the next flu season is going to be, so we can be better prepared.”
Classes for toddlers and young children had been abruptly cancelled for two consecutive years following a winter flu surge in Hong Kong and the study aimed to estimate the speed which influenza spreads and to be able to predict the epidemic’s size both before and during the outbreak.
To predict against seasonal flu outbreaks, the funded project would build a platform to sample data showing the severity of individuals’ influenza and their immune responses before, during and after infection.
The data would help scientists understand why some individuals had weaker responses to influenza vaccination and why some were still likely to suffer from the virus despite strong responses to vaccination.
