The University of Rochester Medical Center has been awarded a $5 million grant to measure the effectiveness of new vaccines for children with respiratory and intestinal infections.

The grant, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), allows URMC’s Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases to continue evaluating the impact of new vaccines and new vaccine policies, especially those affecting young children.

URMC began research in this field in 2000, when it was awarded one of the first three grants in the establishment of the CDC’s New Vaccine Surveillance Network. This marks the fourth time that URMC has received funding to continue this research.

“We were able to receive this highly competitive award because of the recognized excellence of the work our research team performs, as well as the support of the families and children who participate in our research studies even during a stressful time of their illness,” said Geoffrey A. Weinberg, MD, professor of Pediatrics at UR Medicine’s Golisano Children’s Hospital and the NVSN’s primary investigator locally. “Receiving this new funding will allow us to continue pursuing important work on studying children’s respiratory and intestinal infections, and how to best use new vaccines to prevent disease, which should benefit children both locally and nationally.”

Since the inception of the NVSN in 2000, the Rochester NVSN has conducted active, population-based surveillance for hospitalizations associated with acute respiratory infection or gastroenteritis caused by a number of viruses under study, including influenza, parainfluenza, RSV, rotavirus, and norovirus – each of which have new pediatric preventative vaccines available now or in clinical development. The funding will allow this groundbreaking research to continue.

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