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Thus, we decided to package our design as “point of care”, can be applied in both hospital and clinic, especially useful in nightshift and peak season. Besides, as suggested by Prof Chan, distinguishing the subtype of influenza is not very significant in tackling flu, because currently, available medicine can already defeat all types of influenza. Reversely, subtyping is relatively important to be the parameter of deciding the release of chicken to the market. <br> | Thus, we decided to package our design as “point of care”, can be applied in both hospital and clinic, especially useful in nightshift and peak season. Besides, as suggested by Prof Chan, distinguishing the subtype of influenza is not very significant in tackling flu, because currently, available medicine can already defeat all types of influenza. Reversely, subtyping is relatively important to be the parameter of deciding the release of chicken to the market. <br> | ||
− | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/b/bd/Prof_chan.jpeg" width="500px" height="auto"> | + | <center><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/b/bd/Prof_chan.jpeg" width="500px" height="auto"></center> |
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In addition, he emphasized the importance of sensitivity and specificity for several times, especially the latter, as there are many subtypes of influenza. Ability to distinguish various subtypes efficiently enhance the competence of our design. Therefore, sensitivity and specificity check will be the focus of our wet lab part afterward. <br> | In addition, he emphasized the importance of sensitivity and specificity for several times, especially the latter, as there are many subtypes of influenza. Ability to distinguish various subtypes efficiently enhance the competence of our design. Therefore, sensitivity and specificity check will be the focus of our wet lab part afterward. <br> | ||
− | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/4/4d/Prof_sung.jpeg" width="500px" height="auto"> | + | <center><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/4/4d/Prof_sung.jpeg" width="500px" height="auto"></center> |
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We interviewed a representative from the association. Before the interview, we guessed they may be interested a little bit as they suffer the loss of money during central slaughtering. However, out of our expectation, they were almost acceptable to the arrangements from the government because they thought that avian influenza detection should be conducted by neutral position, ie government, which is none of chicken farmer/associations’ business. <br> | We interviewed a representative from the association. Before the interview, we guessed they may be interested a little bit as they suffer the loss of money during central slaughtering. However, out of our expectation, they were almost acceptable to the arrangements from the government because they thought that avian influenza detection should be conducted by neutral position, ie government, which is none of chicken farmer/associations’ business. <br> | ||
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− | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/3/34/Chicken_association.png" width="300px" height="auto"> | + | <center><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/3/34/Chicken_association.png" width="300px" height="auto"></center> |
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We also interviewed two local chicken farmers Mr. Joe Lit and Mr. Charles Lam. They are the founder of the local chicken farm and restaurant “Fork Eat”. Similar to the attitudes of chicken breeders association, they agreed that the role they play in avian flu detection is very passive. The decision, whether slaughter or not, absolutely depends on government. Moreover, they indicated that chicken farms in Hong Kong are undergone regular inspection frequently (approximately 2-3 times per month), which is more than enough in their opinions, so they can’t find any incentive to detect by themselves. <br> | We also interviewed two local chicken farmers Mr. Joe Lit and Mr. Charles Lam. They are the founder of the local chicken farm and restaurant “Fork Eat”. Similar to the attitudes of chicken breeders association, they agreed that the role they play in avian flu detection is very passive. The decision, whether slaughter or not, absolutely depends on government. Moreover, they indicated that chicken farms in Hong Kong are undergone regular inspection frequently (approximately 2-3 times per month), which is more than enough in their opinions, so they can’t find any incentive to detect by themselves. <br> | ||
− | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/6/6d/Forkeat.png" width="250px" height="auto"> | + | <center><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/6/6d/Forkeat.png" width="250px" height="auto"></center> |
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Previously we have proposed government (eg department of health) and chicken farmers will be the major customers in our second direction, avian influenza subtyping, after collecting the chicken farmers’ opinions, we laid the proposal of targeting chicken farmer aside, but confirmed to mainly focus on the market of hospitals/ government/ clinics. | Previously we have proposed government (eg department of health) and chicken farmers will be the major customers in our second direction, avian influenza subtyping, after collecting the chicken farmers’ opinions, we laid the proposal of targeting chicken farmer aside, but confirmed to mainly focus on the market of hospitals/ government/ clinics. | ||
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The influenza viruses test for human specimens mainly provided by the Public Health Laboratory Services Branch under the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health. Thus, we further contacted the Centre for Health Protection for more details. <br> | The influenza viruses test for human specimens mainly provided by the Public Health Laboratory Services Branch under the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health. Thus, we further contacted the Centre for Health Protection for more details. <br> | ||
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− | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/0/0d/Department_of_health.png" width="200px" height="auto"> | + | <center><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/0/0d/Department_of_health.png" width="200px" height="auto"></center> |
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There are several duties of Public Health Laboratory Services Branch under the Centre for Health Protection. Offering laboratory diagnostic services for disease surveillance and control is one of the examples. They provide not merely diagnostic services to confirm whether the samples are positive on influenza, but also laboratory support on outbreak investigation, in other words, subtyping the suspected samples. During peak season or outbreak, rapid kit with subtyping function may help alleviate the pressure of outbreak investigation. <br> | There are several duties of Public Health Laboratory Services Branch under the Centre for Health Protection. Offering laboratory diagnostic services for disease surveillance and control is one of the examples. They provide not merely diagnostic services to confirm whether the samples are positive on influenza, but also laboratory support on outbreak investigation, in other words, subtyping the suspected samples. During peak season or outbreak, rapid kit with subtyping function may help alleviate the pressure of outbreak investigation. <br> | ||
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− | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/9/98/Chp.jpeg" width="180px" height="auto"> | + | <center><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/9/98/Chp.jpeg" width="180px" height="auto"></center> |
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Unlike Centre for Health Protection, Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFAD) is responsible for avian specimen inspection. They described some methods of detection and their procedures, for instance, haemagglutination inhibition test and direct RNA detection by PCR. In Hong Kong, there is only one veterinary laboratory (Tai Lung Veterinary Laboratory) in Hong Kong, while the detections approximately take at least 4 hours, while the size of sanitary testing and inspecting team is not big enough, 46 people in total. It is not difficult to imagine that the workloads of the veterinary laboratory will be very large when handling a lot of avian specimens during flu peak season. <br> | Unlike Centre for Health Protection, Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFAD) is responsible for avian specimen inspection. They described some methods of detection and their procedures, for instance, haemagglutination inhibition test and direct RNA detection by PCR. In Hong Kong, there is only one veterinary laboratory (Tai Lung Veterinary Laboratory) in Hong Kong, while the detections approximately take at least 4 hours, while the size of sanitary testing and inspecting team is not big enough, 46 people in total. It is not difficult to imagine that the workloads of the veterinary laboratory will be very large when handling a lot of avian specimens during flu peak season. <br> | ||
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− | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/4/4a/AFCD.png" width="150px" height="auto"> | + | <center><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/4/4a/AFCD.png" width="150px" height="auto"></center> |
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We also conducted the same questionnaires in different countries (but with the third part of questionnaire only), including Bangladesh (16), India (26), Vietnam (33) (the number inside the bracket indicates the number of respondents respectively). Similar to the trends in Hong Kong, more than half people are interested in using our design for detection, however, half of the respondents in Bangladesh are indifferent to our design. When investigating deeply the reasons behind, they thought the detection kit is unnecessary and be afraid of the high price, meanwhile, they also concern the accuracy. Such attitudes also can be shown in the last question, no matter in Bangladesh (100%), India (75%), Vietnam (40%, but still accounts for the highest proportion among all parameters), they all regard accuracy, ie. sensitivity and specificity as their first choice, which is correspondent with the results in Hong Kong (75%), further proving that accuracy is the first priority in the whole detection design. <br> | We also conducted the same questionnaires in different countries (but with the third part of questionnaire only), including Bangladesh (16), India (26), Vietnam (33) (the number inside the bracket indicates the number of respondents respectively). Similar to the trends in Hong Kong, more than half people are interested in using our design for detection, however, half of the respondents in Bangladesh are indifferent to our design. When investigating deeply the reasons behind, they thought the detection kit is unnecessary and be afraid of the high price, meanwhile, they also concern the accuracy. Such attitudes also can be shown in the last question, no matter in Bangladesh (100%), India (75%), Vietnam (40%, but still accounts for the highest proportion among all parameters), they all regard accuracy, ie. sensitivity and specificity as their first choice, which is correspondent with the results in Hong Kong (75%), further proving that accuracy is the first priority in the whole detection design. <br> | ||
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− | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/9/9e/Bangladesh.png" width="200px" height="auto"> | + | <center><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/9/9e/Bangladesh.png" width="200px" height="auto"> |
<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/f/f3/India.png" width="180px" height="auto"> | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/f/f3/India.png" width="180px" height="auto"> | ||
− | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/f/f0/Vietnam.png" width="180px" height="auto"> | + | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/f/f0/Vietnam.png" width="180px" height="auto"></center> |
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Revision as of 19:19, 29 October 2017