There’s just a little bit of flu around now. So, it’s not too late to get vaccinated. The chart below shows that there is just a tiny uptick recently. But, it is too early to know how big the season will be. We here at the CATCH study are ready to find out what happens on campus. Are you ready to join us, and get paid for your time? So far 120 people have completed the baseline survey and 19 have given baseline samples. Two people have been screened as possible acute respiratory infection cases. What about you?

CDC FluView: Influenza positive tests reported to CDC by US Public Health Laboratories October 1, 2017 – November 17, 2018

In honor of the clinic now being open, here are some more of our clinic RAs!

Meet Delwin!

Delwin is a junior general biology major and is one of our returning clinic RAs! In high school, he used to wrestle. When he is not in clinic, he can be found with Maryland Masti, Health Guardians of America or Terps4Change! In the future Delwin hopes to become a physician. If you are lucky when you come to clinic, Delwin will be your RA!

Meet Katie!

Katie is a senior neurobiology and physiology major and is also one of our returning clinic RAs! In high school she played volleyball and was on the track team. When she is not in clinic she can be found with Phi Sigma Pi, with MedLife, with TerpSki or volunteering at a local retirement home! In the future Katie hopes to become an orthopedic surgeon. If you are lucky when you come to clinic, Katie will be your RA!

Don’t forget to contact the clinic to make an appointment for your baseline visit! Contact us at 4242-GOTFLU (424-246-8358) or catch@umd.edu. 

Good news, we are back and ready to start seeing participants! Starting this week the clinic will be open to schedule baseline visits! We are looking forward to working with you, so come in and we will compensate you for your time.

RAs of the Week

Meet  Jason!

Jason is one of our clinic RAs and has been part of the C.A.T.C.H. study for 2 years. Not only does he work in the clinic, in the past he worked on measuring the correlation between symptom score provided by the participant and the end result (positive or negative) of their samples taken in the clinic. Currently, he is working on the integration process of wearable health monitors into the study. Jason is a senior, microbiology major. In the future, he is hoping to go to medical school to work with disease response or health policy. If your lucky when you come to clinic you will have Jason as your RA!

Meet Amara!

Amara is one of our clinic RAs and has been part of the C.A.T.C.H. study for 2 years. She is a senior Public Health Science major. When Amara is not in clinic, she can be found working as the executive director of Terp Thon or with her sorority, Delta Phi Epsilon. She is even a certified EMT! In the future she hopes to go to PA school to fulfill her dream of becoming a Physician Assistant. If your lucky when you come to clinic you will have Amara as your RA!

Meet more of our awesome undergraduate research assistants!

Meet Afnan!

Afnan is one of our clinic RAs and joined the C.A.T.C.H. study this past  summer. Not only does she do an awesome job in the clinic, she also is helping on a cloning project in the lab! Afnan is a senior, public health science major. On campus, she is also member of Tau Sigma, a Honor Society. Believe it or not, Afnan can be found going for runs at 6am! In the future, she is hoping to go to medical school and become a doctor. If your lucky when you come to clinic you will have Afnan as your RA!

Meet Ankita!

Ankita is one of our clinic RAs and joined the C.A.T.C.H. study last spring. Ankita is a junior, general biology major. When Ankita is not in clinic she can be found working with scholars alumni, in the QUEST honors program, or working as a swim instructor. She loves her job as a swim instructor! In the future Ankita is hoping to go to medical school and serve in a nonprofit organization. If your lucky when you come to clinic you will have Ankita as your RA!

Technology is always changing. To help us identify different viruses that are collected on swabs in the clinic we use PCR assay. This process takes 3-4 hours to run and collect information. A recent study has found an alternative method called loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP). During a comparative study it was found that this technique is just as sensitive and specific to identifying and quantifying viruses. The main difference is that this method only takes 1 hour from swab collection to results! 

Check out this cool paper!

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2018/lc/c8lc00841h