We’d like to send congratulations to the winner of our first March drawing for downloading and running our Smartphone App!

Like our previous winner, she gets $20 and a Giant Microbe (she chose Mono).

 

If you would like a chance to win one of our bimonthly prizes, all you need to do is DOWNLOAD and run our Smartphone App.  Also remember that we’ll have a drawing at the end of the semester and award the winner $500!!!  It’s not too late to download the app and earn entries to win our end of semester prize!

We have some exciting news to report: the CATCH study is expanding!

Now anyone that lives in the Cambridge Community is eligible to participate in all aspects of the study!

How can you participate? Well, you can:

• Fill out a Baseline Survey (sent via email)
• Download our smartphone app
• Come see us and give some samples when you feel sick, and/or
• Visit when we let you know a friend of yours is sick and has named you as a contact.

 

Our study will run through the end of the semester, so there is still plenty of time to help us CATCH the virus!

 

If you have any questions or want to participate, contact us at:
catch@umd.edu

424 -GOTFLU (424-246-8358)

One of the great things about the CATCH student is the extensive student involvement by our Undergraduate Research Assistants (UGRAs).  We have students working both in the clinic, gathering samples from our cases and contacts, and in the lab, processing these samples.

Clinical UGRAs greet the participants, go through the consent with them, and then get some basic information like temperature.

Then, depending on what type of visit that participant is there for, they’ll give some samples.  Clinical UGRAs can take MT swab samples, and capillary blood samples.

Samples are then brought up to the lab, where our Lab UGRAs take over.  Serum and swabs are processed and logged.

The swab samples are then analyzed to determine what, if anything, the participant is infected with.

We are so grateful for all of our UGRA assistance, and are really excited to be able to offer so many students that opportunity to participate in the CATCH project!

We are happy to award monthly prize drawings to two students during the month of February for downloading and running out smartphone app!

 

Stuffy nose, runny nose, tired and achy, scratchy throat, maybe a cough? Wonder what it is? If you are a first year student in the College Park Scholars STS, LS, or GPH programs (or a roommate of someone who is), you could find out — contact us. We can test you to see what you have, and you could join the study and be compensated for your effort.