University of Calgary team tracking national respiratory virus trends among kids – CBC

System monitors infections, vaccine effectiveness and reactions to immunizations

Mar 07, 2025

University of Calgary researchers are leading a national surveillance system, tracking respiratory virus trends among Canadian children who seek care in hospitals, from coast to coast.

The program, known as SPRINT-Kids, involves 15 pediatric hospitals in eight provinces, and is designed to track a range of infectious diseases, including RSV, influenza and COVID-19.

It is also monitoring adverse reactions to immunizations and vaccine effectiveness.

The data, collected for the Public Health Agency of Canada, is reported weekly, providing a real-time perspective on which infections are active, who is most at risk as well as transmission patterns and hot spots, according to the University of Calgary.

“It can serve as a sentinel warning system to identify when we are starting to see increases across the country and where we are seeing it,” said Dr. Stephen Freedman, a professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at the Cumming School of Medicine.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/university-calgary-tracking-respiratory-virus-kids-1.7476465