University of Calgary team tracking national respiratory virus trends among kids

Jennifer Lee · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 07, 2025 7:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

University of Calgary researchers are starring a nationalist surveillance system, tracking respiratory virus trends among Canadian children who question attraction successful hospitals, from seashore to coast.

The program, known as SPRINT-Kids, involves 15 pediatric hospitals successful 8 provinces, and is designed to way a scope of infectious diseases, including RSV, influenza and COVID-19.

It is besides monitoring adverse reactions to immunizations and vaccine effectiveness.

The data, collected for the Public Health Agency of Canada, is reported weekly, providing a real-time position connected which infections are active, who is astir astatine hazard arsenic good arsenic transmission patterns and blistery spots, according to the University of Calgary.

"It tin service arsenic a sentinel informing strategy to place erstwhile we are starting to spot increases crossed the state and wherever we are seeing it," said Dr. Stephen Freedman, a prof of pediatrics and exigency medicine astatine the Cumming School of Medicine.

• Alberta faces different uptick successful flu cases arsenic play intensifies successful North America

The University of Calgary squad was contracted by the national government to instrumentality over the monitoring task aft an earlier pediatric surveillance declaration expired.

According to Freedman, who leads the team, they've expanded the surveillance strategy beyond infirmary admissions to include children seen successful exigency rooms.

"Over 90 per cent of children who question exigency section attraction are really discharged to home. So [we're] truly trying to recognize the broader representation that affects the broader community," helium said.

The programme gathers a scope of information, including symptoms, severity of illness, vaccination status, treatment, tests and outcomes.

"Often these infections … commencement disconnected connected the East Coast and past dilatory marque their mode retired to the West Coast," he said.

"So that can really play a relation successful helping with staffing, planning, addressing the request for surge and capacity. And that is truly benignant of an important happening for the health-care system."

Beyond informing nationalist argumentation and readying astatine a infirmary level, helium said, this benignant of monitoring helps parents by providing accusation connected which viruses are circulating, however communal they are and whether they're apt to amusement up successful their community.

"That besides truly reinforces the imaginable interaction and value of vaccination," helium said.

And, according to Freedman, the strategy tin way emerging threats specified arsenic H5N1 avian influenza.

"If that were to commencement to emerge, we would beryllium primed and acceptable to way it, recognize it, cod information connected its severity precise rapidly to amended recognize it, spot what treatments are being fixed and however the children are doing arsenic well."

The squad is besides looking at mycoplasma pneumoniae — known arsenic walking pneumonia — which sparked interest arsenic lawsuit numbers surged precocious past year.

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In addition, the strategy monitors adverse immunization reactions (both mild and severe), specified arsenic myocarditis, and however often that mightiness beryllium happening. This besides includes children seen successful exigency rooms.

And it builds connected the earlier strategy by collecting information that volition assistance measure however good vaccines are working, according to Freedman.

The U of C squad was contracted to pb the project successful November of 2023 and its scope expanded successful November of 2024, helium said.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said the assemblage was selected aft a erstwhile declaration for pediatric infirmary surveillance expired and the information is simply a cardinal constituent of its overarching surveillance system.

"These information include information connected demographics, objective characteristics, hazard factors and interventions related to terrible respiratory illness, which enables a amended knowing of cardinal factors influencing observed trends and supports the improvement of nationalist wellness recommendations to mitigate the interaction of terrible unwellness successful children," a spokesperson said successful an email.

Freedman expects the team's information volition beryllium shared connected the national government's weekly respiratory microorganism surveillance report wrong the adjacent period oregon two.

And determination are plans to people accusation astir circulating pathogens — along with elaborate property breakdowns — connected the University of Calgary's SPRINT-Kids website.