# Oregon Child Absenteeism due to Respiratory Disease Study 2 Using Influenza-like Illness-specific School Absenteeism as an Early Warning System for Detecting Community Influenza

> **NIH ALLCDC U01** · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · 2020 · $599,676

## Abstract

ORCHARDS 2
ORegon CHild Absenteeism due to Respiratory Disease Study 2
SUMMARY
Background: Influenza is common in school-aged children, has high attack rates, and is a
leading cause of school absenteeism. It is associated with substantial morbidity, mortality and
economic costs. Because influenza is efficiently spread within school settings, rates of school
absenteeism have been proposed as a component of early warning systems. The lack of
specificity, however, has limited the effectiveness of this method. During the first three years of
ORCHARDS, we have shown significant and high correlations between: (1) influenza cases
within absentee children (SI) and medically-attended influenza (MAI) in the surrounding
community, (2) influenza-like illness absenteeism (a-ILI) and SI, and (3) a-ILI and MAI. We
have created and tested a simple modification of an existing and widely-used electronic school
information system (ESIS) to automatically report a-ILI on a daily basis, and used this
information to accurately identify influenza outbreaks in the community. Program Goal: The
goal of ORCHARDS-2 is to expand the assessment of this system to assess for different strains
and timing of season influenza outbreaks. In addition, the level of transmission occurring within
household of index SI cases will be evaluated. Methods: We will use parental reporting of
symptoms into a telephonic absence reporting system and an algorithm within the Infinite
Campus® ESIS for daily absenteeism assessment. We will actively recruit at least 300 children
absence due to respiratory infection from the Oregon School District, Dane County, Wisconsin,
in each of four years. We will use home visits to collect detailed demographic, household,
epidemiologic and symptom data, and nasal and NP/OP specimens for virological testing.
Nasal specimens will be tested using SOFIA RIDT. NP/OP specimens will be transported to the
Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene for influenza rT-PCR testing and for the presence of
other respiratory viruses using a Luminex Multiplex PCR platform. We will recruit at least 240
households with ill children for transmission assessment. All household members will self
collect nasal specimens on day 0 and 7 for influenza rT-PCR and provide detailed illness data.
The temporal patterns of a-ILI will be compared to influenza surveillance based on MAI within
the surrounding community. Rates of within-home transmission of influenza will be calculated.
Significance: School-based influenza surveillance provides an opportunity for extremely early
detection of influenza in a community. School to home transmission is likely to expand
outbreaks. Coupling cause-specific absenteeism with RIDT, with PCR confirmation, allows for
inexpensive, rapid identification of seasonal and pandemic influenza.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9986572
- **Project number:** 5U01CK000542-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
- **Principal Investigator:** JONATHAN L TEMTE
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $599,676
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-01 → 2021-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9986572

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9986572, Oregon Child Absenteeism due to Respiratory Disease Study 2 Using Influenza-like Illness-specific School Absenteeism as an Early Warning System for Detecting Community Influenza (5U01CK000542-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9986572. Licensed CC0.

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