Earn $3,300 by getting the flu and letting researchers at Duke study you

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Monday, November 4, 2019
Researchers pay volunteers to get the flu
You may want to give this a shot, scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases are purposefully infecting participants with influenza, better known as

DURHAM, N.C. -- You may want to give this a shot: Participants have the chance to get paid to intentionally get infected with the flu--specifically the H1N1 virus.

Researchers with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will pay healthy adults up to $3,300 to participate in the study.

Researchers want to closely monitor the symptoms of H1N1 to better understand how the virus works and how to control it.

NIH is only accepting 80 people in the study. To enroll, participants must be between 18 to 49 years old.

Volunteers will then be given a nasal spray containing a strain of the seasonal virus.

If you're interested in participating, you can learn more about the trial and get contact information for the research staff here.

"(National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) investigators have been pioneers in contemporary human influenza challenge trials," said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. "These trials provide a powerful tool to study many aspects of influenza disease progression and also can help to efficiently assess new treatments and vaccine candidates."

There are four trial sites in total including Durham's very own Duke University, Saint Louis University Center for Vaccine Development in Missouri and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio.

The National Institutes of Health expects to have preliminary trial results in May 2020.