Saving Lives is very proud to say we continue to work with the UK Health Security Agency and the Royal College of General Practitioners on their UK-wide respiratory surveillance programme.
We have provided use of our self-sampling system for this purpose since the height of the pandemic, when as part of our contribution to the national response we offered our assistance in remotely testing individuals for SARS-CoV2. We have now won a five-year contract with UKSA to continue to provide these services to what is the world’s longest-running influenza surveillance programme.
You can read more about the programme, and our involvement in it, in this article published in The Guardian last year. The network’s lead, Professor Simon di Lusignan, says:
“One of the things the pandemic has done is ensure that much less explanation is needed now on how to take a swab.”
A charity called TakeATestUK dispatches the flu kit. The patient does the throat swab and posts it off to Zambon’s lab teams for analysis. GPs still feel they need to see some patients in person – such as older people who may have a chest infection, and small babies – but others will be told they are best staying warm, drinking fluids and getting over it at home.
As a charity centred on the power to improve our collective health that testing for viruses offers, this high-profile and valuable work has been a pleasure to assist with. We’ll continue to work with UKLHSA to improve and enhance the nation’s data on respiratory viruses.
