La Paz Hospital joins an European H2020 project on the seasonal flu vaccine
The flu is a deadly disease which causes up to 50 million cases of illness and up to 70,000 deaths in Europe each year, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Vaccine effectiveness can vary from year to year and across different groups of population.
Beside iProcure Security Project, La Paz Hospital (Madrid, Spain) has just been admitted on the DRIVE (Development of Robust and Innovative Vaccines Effectiveness) public-private partnership. Their emergency department will be working closely with the microbiology service in order to analyse samples of patients with flu symptoms who come to emergency department, and thus contribute to advance towards a more effective influenza vaccine.
La Paz Hospital covers a population of 800.000 people, and every year it has access (between the emergency room and primary care) to approximately 1500 people diagnosed with influenza. This fact gives the project the opportunity to have a large number of samples.
Author: Sandra Rueda Charro