Who can be involved?

Oxford Vaccine Group is inviting healthy children aged 2 to 5 years who have not yet had their yearly influenza vaccine to take part in the study.

What is the study about?

The yearly flu vaccine given to children via the nose is a live attenuated vaccine. This means it mimics the course of the natural illness in the upper airways without causing illness in the lower airways (chest/lungs). When the vaccine viruses match the circulating virus strains well, then the vaccine is highly effective at preventing infection from flu and the spread of infection from children to those around them.

For children the nasal vaccine is more effective than the injected vaccine. We hope to create nasal vaccines for other respiratory illnesses that would be more effective and better tolerated vaccines for children that may someday replace some of their injected vaccines.

This new study will investigate the immune response in the nose to the infective challenge of the live, nasal flu vaccine. This will be compared to the response in the blood to the same challenge. It is hoped that learning more about these responses and how they relate to each other, will help to discover what blood tests give good information about the development of an effective immune response in the nose.

If we can discover what markers - especially in the blood – are the best indications of a good immune response in the nose, we can use these tests in the future when testing newly developed nasal vaccines as part of the judgement of their efficacy.

What happens in the study?

Participants will have two study visits at home. Participants in the study will be given their routine influenza vaccine at the first of the visits. Blood tests, samples from the nose and saliva will be taken at the two visits. We will also ask you to take some samples of nasal fluid with special blotting paper, and saliva, between the visits and complete a quick daily symptom diary.

For the blood tests, local anaesthetic cream is used to numb the skin, and participants will be entertained by a trained play specialist.

Taking part in this study is voluntary and participants can withdraw at any time.

What can I do if I’m interested in taking part?

If you would like further information about the study, please read the Participant Information sheet or contact the study team:

If you have read the Participant Information Sheet and are interested in participating, please answer the Prescreening Questionnaire to see if your child is eligible to take part.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of the study, please contact us by email or phone:

Email: info@ovg.ox.ac.uk

Telephone: 01865 611400