Description | Helen Chu, MD, MPH UW Departments of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Global Health Influenza epidemics and pandemics cause significant morbidity and mortality. An effective response to a potential pandemic requires the infrastructure to rapidly detect and contain new and emerging flu strains at a population level. As part of the Seattle Flu Study, we seek to compare the clinical and sociodemographic characteristics of individuals with influenza simultaneously sampled from the community and the hospital and to develop models of how influenza enters and spreads in a major metropolitan area. Dr. Chu's research is focused on immunization strategies against influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). She studies the virologic and immunologic correlates of protection from respiratory viral infections in pregnant women, infants, and older adults, and performs clinical trials of vaccine candidates in both domestic and international sites, including Nepal and Bangladesh. She has developed assays to study transplacental transfer and decay kinetics of RSV antibody, and nosocomial and household transmission of respiratory viruses by genotypic analysis and molecular sequencing. |
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