Since the outbreak of novel coronavirus, medical workers at Renmin Hospital and Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University have been fighting at the “fire line”, building up a “Great Wall” to protect people in desperate need. In another battlefield, WUHers have never stopped their march in scientific research. From the classroom to the front line against “epidemic”, WUHers have been fighting in the laboratories, accompanied by scientific instruments and virus samples, constituting the important force of anti-epidemic scientific research.
Wuhan is a city endowed with strong scientific research strength thanks to its large number of universities. This fight against the epidemic has witnessed the active role played by universities in Wuhan with their advantages in clinical medicine and scientific research, especially Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Wuhan University. Several affiliated hospitals of these two universities are the key hospitals for receiving and treating COVID-19 patients. At the same time, they have been devoted to offering scientific and technological supports for the anti-epidemic front-line. Immediate action are taken to assemble some transdisciplinary research teams for emergency scientific breakthroughs with their upper hands as two institutions with comprehensive disciplines.
The two well-known hospitals affiliated to Wuhan University, Renmin Hospital and Zhongnan Hospital, have assigned more than 17,000 medical workers and opened over 8,600 hospital beds. Tang Qizhu, the vice president of Wuhan University, said, “Wuhan University is a comprehensive university. It has a medical school with a complete discipline system, and several high-level affiliated hospitals, especially the Renmin Hospital and Zhongnan Hospital, which are incumbent to undertake the major task of epidemic prevention.”
In the fight, the medical teams of Wuhan University not only have stood fast at their own battle ground, but also reinforced other medical hospitals by taking over Wuchang makeshift hospitals and the one in Wuhan Keting(China Culture Exhibition Center). In particular, Zhongnan Hospital shouldered the great responsibility of taking over Leishenshan Hospital. Leishenshan Hospital, built at Chinese speed, has a total of 1,500 beds, bringing together 12 medical teams across the country, involving more than 230 units, and amounting to more than 2,300 medical workers. How to get this makeshift hospital operate scientifically and efficiently? For the Zhongnan Hospital, this is a must-win challenge.
For more than a month, work in Leishenshan Hospital has been on in an orderly manner. It has received more than 2,000 COVID-19 patients in severe or critical condition, and 1499 patients have been cured and discharged with zero nosocomial infection in medical staff during this process.
In addition to all-out efforts to treat patients in the clinical front-line, Wuhan University also gives full play to its advantages in medical science and the multidiscipline, whose combination provides scientific and technological supports for the anti-epidemic front line. In the Department of Laboratory Medicine of Renmin Hospital, the molecular pathogen detection team are at the risk of being exposed to hundreds or even thousands of specimens from patients with dangerous positive novel coronavirus. In the epidemic fight, the Laboratory Department of Renmin Hospital is one of the earliest institutions in China to carry out the COVID-19 nucleic acid detection work. Li Yan, director of the department, said, “At that time, two shifts were adopted. Then the urgent epidemic situation required a switch to four shifts. The machine is non-stop, but people have to rest. The maximum collection can reach 1,704 a day, and the total amount is now more than 30,000.”
Nucleic acid testing is an important method and the basis for screening COVID-19 infection and determining whether patients are cured. Inaccurate testing result can cause negative effect on the epidemic prevention and control, and the timely treatment of patients. In order to get a higher insurance factor for the conventional fluorescent quantitative PCR nucleic acid detection methods, Li Yan’s team cooperate with the team led by Professor Liu Tiangang from the School of Pharmacy and other institutions to form a joint research group to race against time.
Reportedly, conventional fluorescent quantitative PCR nucleic acid detection methods only detect and analyze 2 to 3 sites on the viral genome. But the nanopore targeted sequencing method, developed by the joint research team of Wuhan University, has expanded the detection range to 9 genes, 12 sites, which can comprehensively cover important genes related to virulence on the viral genome. Thus, the detection range is increased by 100 times, significantly improving the sensitivity and accuracy of detection.
This new detection method has another obvious advantage. Apart from the quick detection on novel coronavirus, it can also simultaneously detect ten common respiratory viruses, including boca virus, influenza A virus, and influenza B virus. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that science and technology has been the most powerful weapon for human beings to fight and defeat diseases throughout the history. We still have quite limited knowledge about the transmission route, pathogenic mechanism, and cure medication of COVID-19, a novel infectious disease. Defeating the epidemic calls for technological supports. The final victory of this general war, people’s war, and obstruction war of epidemic prevention and control can only be achieved through science innovation, the active participation of talents from universities, and the determination to run a race against time, to fight against the disease and to polish our anti-epidemic tools.
This is a battle between mankind and virus
It’s also a race between science and time
Race against the very second and forge ahead through dangers
Doctors and nurses are holding their position and mission
Calm down to accumulate energy and power
Take out the scientific blade to fight against disease
Edited by: Cao Siyi, Shen Yuxi and Hu Sijia
