Grant: Fellowship - Priority Announcement: Drug Safety and Effectiveness

Yearly outbreaks of influenza cause a substantial amount of illness in Canada. Most commonly the influenza virus causes a mild respiratory illness, but pneumonia and death occur, especially in high risk groups such as young children, the elderly, and those with chronic medical conditions (eg; Asthma and diabetes). There is also new evidence suggesting a link between influenza illness with heart attacks and strokes. The mainstay of combating influenza is through prevention with vaccination. Our understanding of vaccine effectiveness for preventing severe outcomes, such as hospitalization and death, is not well understood, particularly in those at highest risk for these outcomes. Our proposal is a two-part study to improve our understanding of influenza infection and effectiveness of vaccination. In the first part, we will evaluate the relationship of influenza on heart attacks and strokes. This can be accomplished by combining information about laboratory swabs for influenza from the public health lab with the extensive health records captured in the Institute for Clinical and Evaluative Sciences (ICES) databases. The second part of the study will look at how well the vaccine worked for high risk individuals in preventing important outcomes such as hospitalization and death from influenza. These studies are important to expand our understanding of the effects of influenza infection on Canadians. In addition, we will provide new information on how well the vaccine works in the most vulnerable portions of our population that will help inform future vaccine policy in Canada. Furthermore, this study will result in an extensive influenza database with opportunities for future studies on influenza and influenza vaccine.