YEOVIL NEWS: Hospital research team needs children to help with national flu study

YEOVIL District Hospital is looking for children with flu-like illness - who may be at greater risk of developing further complications from flu - to take part in a study that could change the way we use antibiotics.

For most children, flu is a mild and relatively short illness. However, for those with pre-existing medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, and cerebral palsy, as well as some children who were born prematurely, flu may lead to more serious complications such as pneumonia and ear infections.

The ARCHIE study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research and led by researchers at the University of Oxford, is working with a selection of GP surgeries and hospitals across England to see whether early antibiotic treatment may prevent these children from developing further complications from flu.

Leading this research work at Yeovil Hospital is Paediatric Registrar Dr Camelia Vaina.

“The research department at Yeovil Hospital is extremely active and ARCHIE is just one of the many studies we are currently involved in,” she said. “It’s a really exciting study which could have a very positive impact on the way in which we use antibiotics effectively.

“One of the challenges we face is that nasal spray flu vaccine for children has proven to be very successful, meaning we are very limited on the number of children coming into hospital with flu-like symptoms, which is obviously great news. However, this does mean that we are still very much on the lookout for parents and children who might be interested in joining our study.

“The flu virus seems to particularly predispose children to bacterial infections, which may make children with flu-like illness even more unwell. We therefore want to find out whether targeting antibiotics specifically at children who we already know are more susceptible to bacterial infections can help prevent further complications and speed up recovery times.”

Current research has found that children with neurological conditions and diabetes are at greater risk of developing flu-related complications and children born prematurely are more likely to need to be admitted to hospital as a result of flu-like symptoms than those born at full term.

The hope of the study is that, if early antibiotic treatment is found to be effective in these children, this will help guide more accurate targeting of antibiotics in the community, and help minimise the development of antibiotic resistance due to unnecessary antibiotic prescribing.

The researcher teams at Yeovil Hospital and Taunton’s Musgrove Hospital are calling on parents and children interested in taking part in their study to visit within the first five days of their child developing flu-like symptoms.

Children will be tested to see whether they have the influenza virus and given a five-day course of study medication.

Children may also have further optional tests to look at whether using antibiotics in this way may have implications for their effectiveness in treating future infections.

If you would like to discuss whether your child may be eligible please call the research team in Yeovil on 01935 384 297.

Further details about the study can be found at www.archiestudy.com .

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