CU Medicine Brochure

STILL IN THE GAME: CU Medicine vs COVID-19 25 Prof. Siew Ng , Associate Director of the Centre for Gut Microbiota Research, says the active and prolonged viral activity in the gut of COVID-19 patients occurs even after they appear to have recovered, highlight- ing the importance of long-term coronavi- rus and health surveillance. What’s more, there’s an elevated threat of faecal-oral viral transmissions. ‘Stool specimens are more convenient, safe and non-invasive to collect in the paediatric population, and can give accurate results,’ explains Prof. Paul Chan , Chairman of the De- partment of Microbiology. ‘This makes the stool test a better option for COVID-19 screening in babies, young children and those whose respi- ratory samples are difficult to collect.’ Starting from 7 September, 2020, CU Medicine began running as many as 2,000 COVID-19 tests per day in the city as a whole. This includes stool screening of specific groups targeted by the Department of Health: local high-risk babies and young children, the pae- diatric population returning to Hong Kong from high-risk areas, and adults who have difficulties in providing specimens for sputum, nasal and throat swabs. The aim is to identify asymptom- atic carriers of the COVID-19 virus as early as possible to cut off its spread in the community. Prof. Francis Chan , Dean of Medicine and Director of the Centre for Gut Microbiota Research, says, ‘Stool test is accurate and safe. Authorities such as the US Food and Drug Administration are currently working with CU Medicine to perfect stool-test sampling for COVID-19.’