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A New Zealand research project examining ways to control the spread of pandemic flu has been awarded a $1.6 million grant by the United States Centres for Disease Control.
The University of Otago project, led by Dr Michael Baker, will focus on preventing cross-border and within-household spread of flu.
It is thought to be the first award of a Centres for Disease Control research grant to a New Zealand team.
With the University of Otago team, six United States projects and one Hong Kong project were awarded grants.
Non-pharmaceutical responses include border control, social distancing (such as closing schools or workplaces), isolation of cases, and quarantine of household contacts.
If a pandemic struck, in lieu of a vaccine, community prevention strategies were likely to serve as the first line of defence to help to control the spread of disease, Dr Baker said.
The grant would support investigation of several important questions about pandemic flu transmission, he said.
"Research to date has tended to focus on containing influenza in Europe or North America, where border control is not considered a particularly useful option.
"This new research project will help address that gap by specifically investigating ways of screening and controlling influenza at the borders of island countries like New Zealand, Pacific Islands and 'continental islands' like Australia."
The research project includes three parts:
* Examining how best to screen people arriving by air in the event of a flu pandemic.
* Reviewing methods of border control used during the 1918, 1957 and 1968 flu pandemics.
* Measuring rates of flu-related hospitalisation against household conditions.
This overall project builds on pandemic flu research already carried out by the University of Otago.
The university recently completed research that used mathematical models to predict how easy it might be to prevent transmission across borders and local spread within New Zealand.
This research was done for the Health Ministry and has been used to guide pandemic influenza planning efforts across New Zealand.
- NZPA
