Thames Recreational Users Study Need Volunteers
The Thames Recreational Users Study is an ongoing study looking into water quality in the Upper Thames Tideway, in particular the risks of gastrointestinal illness in recreational users of the river.
In addition to the ongoing collection of health related and environmental data, the co-ordinators of the study are seeking 100 regular river users who would be willing to participate in a sub-study looking at asymptomatic infections in river users.
People who are repeatedly exposed to a source of infection will frequently become infected without any obvious signs of ill health, as they have already built up some immunity. This occurs in many viral infections, including the common cold. Such infections are referred to as “asymptomatic” or “sub-clinical”. A new river user would be likely, if exposed to the same virus, to become ill, with a regular user remaining well, despite the infection.
This study will be looking to see if regular users of the Thames Tideway who have not been ill, have been recently infected by any of a number of microbes commonly found in the river, and compare them against a population who have no connection with river sports.
Why not give up a few minutes of your time to help us collect this vital information about the current safety of the Thames?
The study will involve volunteers:
- Completing a registration and consent form (about 2 minutes)
- At a later date, providing some specimens (a faecal sample, i.e. sample of your bowel movements, and two saliva samples taken ten days apart)
- Filling in a further on-line questionnaire (2 minutes)
Information and registration for the study can be done on the web-site at http://www.hpa-thamesstudy.org.uk/ASImain.asp. If you wish to discuss the study further please contact the co-ordinators via the web-site contacts page.
All samples would be collected by participants themselves, and would not require any medical intervention. They can be sent by post using a collection kit provided with full instructions. The co-ordinators will contact participants with reminders for the second of the salivary samples. All information collected will be treated with full medical confidentiality (no one else gets to see the information).
If any recreational users suffer from stomach upsets, skin, ear or eye infections, they would still very much like to hear about them.
Reports can be made through the Thames Recreational Users Study website at http://www.hpa-thamesstudy.org.uk on the self reported illness form (this takes less than 5 minutes to complete), or by email to thamesrec.study(at)hpa.org.uk) or by phone (details on the website).