FEATURE When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in early 2020, the world was taken by surprise. But for HKUMed’s specialists in emerging infectious diseases (EIDs), it was all in a day’s work. For more than 25 years, they have been studying and responding to EID outbreaks, be it SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19, the first SARS-CoV of 2003, avian influenza H5N1 and H7N9 viruses, the swine flu H1N1 virus and the virus causing Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV), to name their most famous conquests. Their expertise was recognised recently by The Lancet, which named research by Professor Yuen Kwok-Yung and Dr Jasper Chan Fuk-woo of the Department of Microbiology, School of Clinical Medicine documenting person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 as one of the most important papers it had published in its 200-year history (only 34 publications were selected which included the discovery papers of antiseptic technique, penicillin and Helicobacter pylori). Another recognition was the awarding of the Pasteur Network LP200 Prize, a special scientific prize to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Pasteur, to Professor Leo Poon Lit-man of the School of Public Health. These achievements are built The World’s Pandemic Watchdogs on a legacy that stretches all the way back to HKUMed’s founder, Sir Patrick Manson, who is regarded as the Father of Tropical Medicine and was a skilled physician, surgeon and ←Research led by Professor Yuen Kwok-Yung (right), Chair of Infectious Diseases and Dr Jasper Chan Fuk-woo, Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology, SClinMed was recognised by The Lancet as one of the most important papers published in its 200-year history. ‘We have this great tradition at HKU that makes us successful [...] We see patients and take relevant specimens from them so that we can discover new viruses in our clinical laboratory, and then immediately share them with our basic scientists.’ Professor Yuen Kwok-Yung 8
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