URTI - Viral Upper Respiratory Tract Infection

Every country in the world is experiencing growth in both the size and the proportion of older persons. As a result of the changes, the profile and needs of people with medical illnesses have evolved. How care is delivered to patients has to keep pace with these changes, or patients will experience poor care at high cost and not have their needs met. A new model of care has emerged to meet these challenges: Acute Medical Unit. Despite considerable investment and popularity of this model, questions remain: (i) Who benefits most from this care model? (ii) How may these models be most effectively implemented for the best results? (iii) How effective are these models? Singapore is well-placed to answer these questions with its national healthcare system and excellent research institutions. The investigators plan to study how effective the model is by comparing patients with similar profiles exposed to both these care models compared to how hospital care is usually provided, looking for four differences: (i) how long patients stay in hospital, (ii) how often they use the emergency department (iii) quality of health (iv) cost. Additionally, the investigators seek to characterise patterns of health needs for this group of patients.

Many respiratory diseases spread through aerosols. ColdZyme is a mouth spray that protects against upper respiratory tract viruses causing common cold and flu-like symptoms. ColdZyme forms a protective moisturizing barrier on the mucous membrane of the oral cavity and throat. The objective of this study is assessing if ColdZyme could also contribute to decreased airborne transmission by decreasing the amount of (infectious) virus that is exhaled by an infected subject.

The present study is a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, parallel-group clinical studydesigned to assess the effects of IP on immune health in teachers prone to URTI. Approximately 179individuals aged between 18 and 50 years will be screened. Considering a screen failure of 20%,approximately 144 individuals will be randomized in a ratio of 1:1 to receive either the active orplacebo. The study will have at least 100 completed participants i.e. 50 participants in each studyarm after accounting for a dropout/withdrawal rate of 30% at the end of the study. The interventionand follow-up duration for all the study participants will be 120 days.