Dean of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, Prof Gabriel Leung will visit LSHTM on Thursday 27 February. A leading figure on severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and COVID-19, he will give a talk to share epidemiological insights into the evolving COVID-19 outbreak, assess knowledge gaps, and appraise the impact of interventions in China, with a view to prepare the rest of the world for potential further spread.

This seminar will be hosted by the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST) – a partnership between LSHTM and Public Health England funded by UK Aid.

Peter Piot will provide welcome remarks.

Gabriel Leung is the fortieth Dean of Medicine (2013-), inaugural Helen and Francis Zimmern Professor in Population Health and holds the Chair of Public Health Medicine at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). He was the last Head of Community Medicine (2012-3) at the University as well as Hong Kong’s first Under Secretary for Food and Health (2008-11) and fifth Director of the Chief Executive’s Office (2011-2) in government.

He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Medicine (formerly Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences) and was awarded the Gold Bauhinia Star (second highest civilian honour) by the Hong Kong government for distinguished service in protecting and promoting population health.

A specialist in public health medicine, Leung’s interdisciplinary work revolves around topics that have major population health impact locally, where Hong Kong is a reliable and unique epidemiologic sentinel for mainland China and the Chinese diaspora, or where the it is best placed to address the fundamental science at hand globally.

Leung is one of Asia’s leading epidemiologists and global health exponents, having authored more than 480 scholarly papers with an h-index of 61 (Scopus). His research defined the epidemiology of two novel viral epidemics, namely SARS-CoV in 2003 and influenza A(H7N9) in 2013. He also led Hong Kong government’s efforts against pandemic A(H1N1) in 2009. He was founding co-director of HKU’s World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control (2014-8) and currently directs the Laboratory of Data Discovery for Health at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park (2020-).

Leung regularly advises national and international agencies including the World Health Organisation, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Boao Forum for Asia, Institut Pasteur, Japan Center for International Exchange and China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is an Adjunct Professor of Peking Union Medical College Hospital and Adjunct Professorial Researcher of the China National Health Development Research Center.

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Anna Jinxia Zhang, Andrew Chak-Yiu Lee, Jasper Fuk-Woo Chan, Feifei Liu, Can Li, Yanxia Chen, Hin Chu, Siu-Ying Lau, Pui Wang, Chris Chung-Sing Chan, Vincent Kwok-Man Poon, Shuofeng Yuan, Kelvin Kai-Wang To, Honglin Chen, Kwok-Yung Yuen

Highlights:

• Established a golden Syrian hamster model co-infected by SARS-CoV-2 and mouse-adapted A(H1N1)pdm09 simultaneously or sequentially.
• Co-infected hamsters had more weight loss, more severe lung inflammatory damage and tissue cytokine/chemokine expression.
• Simultaneous co-infection was associated with delay in resolution of lung damages, lower serum SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody and longer SARS-CoV-2 shedding in oral swabs compared to that of SARS-CoV-2 infection alone.
• Whole-population influenza vaccination for prevention of co-infection, and multiplex molecular diagnostics for both viruses to achieve early initiation of antiviral treatment for improvement of clinical outcome should be considered.

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The post Co-infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and influenza virus enhances the severity of pneumonia in golden Syrian hamsters appeared first on Fight Covid-19.

Shuofeng Yuan, Runming Wang, Jasper Fuk-Woo Chan, Anna Jinxia Zhang, Tianfan Cheng, Kenn Ka-Heng Chik, Zi-Wei Ye, Suyu Wang, Andrew Chak-Yiu Lee, Lijian Jin, Hongyan Li, Dong-Yan Jin, Kwok-Yung Yuen & Hongzhe Sun

Highlights:

• Identify ranitidine bismuth citrate(RBC), a commonly used drug for the treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection, as a potent anti-SARS-CoV-2 agent, both in vitro and in vivo.
• RBC suppressed SARS-CoV-2 replication, leading to decreased viral loads in both upper and lower respiratory tracts, and relieved virus-associated pneumonia in a golden Syrian hamster model.
• RBC exhibited low cytotoxicity and protected SARS-CoV-2-infected cells with a high selectivity index of 975.

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The post [Nature Microbiology] Metallodrug ranitidine bismuth citrate suppresses SARS-CoV-2 replication and relieves virus-associated pneumonia in Syrian hamsters appeared first on Fight Covid-19.

Andrew Chak-Yiu Lee, Anna Jinxia Zhang, Jasper Fuk-Woo Chan, Can Li, Zhimeng Fan, Feifei Liu, Yanxia Chen, Ronghui Liang, Siddharth Sridhar, Jian-Piao Cai, Vincent Kwok-Man Poon, Chris Chung-Sing Chan, Kelvin Kai-Wang To, Shuofeng Yuan, Jie Zhou, Hin Chu, Kwok-Yung Yuen

Highlights

The post [Cell Reports Medicine] Oral SARS-CoV-2 inoculation establishes subclinical respiratory infection with virus shedding in golden Syrian hamsters appeared first on Fight Covid-19.

Paul Bastard, Lindsey B. Rosen, Qian Zhang, Eleftherios Michailidis, Hans-Heinrich Hoffmann, Yu Zhang, et al.

• Reported that at least 101 of 987 patients with life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia had neutralizing IgG auto-Abs against IFN-ω (13 patients), the 13 types of IFN-α (36), or both (52), at the onset of critical disease; a few also had auto-Abs against the other three type I IFNs.
• The auto-Abs neutralize the ability of the corresponding type I IFNs to block SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro.
• These auto-Abs were not found in 663 individuals with asymptomatic or mild SARS-CoV-2 infection and were present in only 4 of 1,227 healthy individuals.
• A B cell auto-immune phenocopy of inborn errors of type I IFN immunity underlies life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia in at least 2.6% of women and 12.5% of men.

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The post [Science] Auto-antibodies against type I IFNs in patients with life-threatening COVID-19 appeared first on Fight Covid-19.

Qian Zhang, Paul Bastard, Zhiyong Liu, Jérémie Le Pen, Marcela Moncada-Velez, Jie Chen, et al.

Highlights:

• Found an enrichment in rare variants predicted to be loss-of-function (LOF) at the 13 human loci known to govern TLR3- and IRF7-dependent type I interferon (IFN) immunity to influenza virus, in 659 patients with life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia, relative to 534 subjects with asymptomatic or benign infection.
• Experimentally define LOF variants in 23 patients (3.5%), aged 17 to 77 years, underlying autosomal recessive or dominant deficiencies.
• Human fibroblasts with mutations affecting this pathway are vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2.
• Inborn errors of TLR3- and IRF7-dependent type I IFN immunity can underlie life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia in patients with no prior severe infection.

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The post [Science] Inborn errors of type I IFN immunity in patients with life-threatening COVID-19 appeared first on Fight Covid-19.

Edward M. Choi, Daniel K.W. Chu, Peter K.C. Cheng, Dominic N.C. Tsang, Malik Peiris, Daniel G. Bausch, Leo L.M. Poon, Deborah Watson-Jones

Highlights:

• Examined public records for 1,110 persons with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in Hong Kong, China, recorded from January 23 through June 13, 2020.
• Four persons with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection had traveled on the same flight from Boston, Massachusetts, USA, to Hong Kong, China.
• Their virus genetic sequences are identical, unique, and belong to a clade not previously identified in Hong Kong, which strongly suggests that the virus can be transmitted during air travel.

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The post [Emerging Infectious Diseases] In-Flight Transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 appeared first on Fight Covid-19.

Ming-Yen Ng, Eric Yuk Fai Wan, Ho Yuen Frank Wong, Siu Ting Leung, Jonan Chun Yin Lee, Thomas Wing-Yan Chin, Christine Shing Yen Lo, Macy Mei-Sze Lui, Edward Hung Tat Chan, Ambrose Ho-Tung Fong, Fung Sau Yung, On Hang Ching, Keith Wan-Hang Chiu et al.

Highlights:

The post [International Journal of Infectious Diseases] Development and Validation of Risk Prediction Models for COVID-19 Positivity in a Hospital Setting appeared first on Fight Covid-19.

Li, X., Chan, J.F., Li, K.K. et al.

Highlights:

• A total of 158 conjunctival swabs were obtained from 49 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients. The median duration of illness when the first conjunctival swab was obtained was 10 days (range 2–27 days).
• Four conjunctival swabs from four different patients (4/49, 8.2%) were positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA by RT-PCR. The Ct values ranged from 32.7 to 37.7 (mean 35.4).
• Conjunctival secretions of a minority of COVID-19 patients without ocular symptoms may contain relatively low levels of SARS-CoV-2 RNA, but their infectiousness remains undetermined.

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The post [Infection] Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in conjunctival secretions from patients without ocular symptoms appeared first on Fight Covid-19.

Sheng Zhi Zhao, Janet Yuen Ha Wong, Tzu Tsun Luk, Abraham Ka Chung Wai, Tai Hing Lam, Man Ping Wang

Highlights:

• Compared with 2016 and 2017, the population stress level, prevalence of anxiety and the depression symptoms drastically increased during the COVID-19 outbreak.
• Older and less educated respondents tended to have deteriorated mental health outcomes.
• Public mental health interventions are urgently needed particularly for the vulnerable groups.

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The post [International Journal of Infectious Diseases] Mental health crisis under COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong, China appeared first on Fight Covid-19.