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− | According to the latest figures (up to 17 August 2017) from the Department of Health, HKSAR, 536 cases of severe illness and 388 deaths were recorded, affecting Hong Kong a lot every year undoubtedly in terms of public healthcare system, economy(please visit our <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Hong_Kong-CUHK/Description">description page</a>). In order | + | According to the latest figures (up to 17 August 2017) from the Department of Health, HKSAR, 536 cases of severe illness and 388 deaths were recorded, affecting Hong Kong a lot every year undoubtedly in terms of public healthcare system, economy(please visit our <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Hong_Kong-CUHK/Description">description page</a>). In order for our design to suit the needs of potential users, it is necessary to understand their concerns and integrate them into our project. |
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− | + | We have come up with 4 major potential users: medical experts, chicken farmers, government and the general public. | |
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<b>1. Professor Chan Kay Sheung, Paul (13 April 2017)</b> | <b>1. Professor Chan Kay Sheung, Paul (13 April 2017)</b> | ||
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− | Before starting our project, we interviewed <b>Professor Paul Chan</b> at the <b>Department of Microbiology, Prince of Wales Hospital</b>. Professor Paul Chan is an <b>Honorary Consultant in Microbiology of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority</b>. He is also a <b>member of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network of World Health Organization</b>. | + | Before starting our project, we interviewed <b>Professor Paul Chan</b> at the <b>Department of Microbiology, Prince of Wales Hospital</b>. Professor Paul Chan is an <b>Honorary Consultant in Microbiology of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority</b>. He is also a <b>member of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network of World Health Organization</b>. His advices are very useful because he is an expert in molecular methods for rapid diagnosis and strain characterization.</u>. |
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− | Professor Chan had explained the whole process of influenza detection, from sample collection to standard diagnosis procedures in detail. Initially, we | + | Professor Chan had explained the whole process of influenza detection, from sample collection to standard diagnosis procedures in detail. Initially, we thought that we can just collect patients' saliva for testing. However, he pointed out that actually there is a variety of sources that we can collect from patients as samples: <b>Nasopharyngeal aspirate</b> is the most sensitive source to be examined, however, a nurse's assistance is required, while <b>throat swab</b> is the common method adopted in clinic due to its easy manipulation and collection, less virus is found here, leading to lower accuracy. Thus, he emphasized if the sensitivity of the product we designed is similar to that of PCR reaction, the source limitation and profession are no longer an obstacle. |
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− | After listening to his advice, we decided to package our design as “point of care”, applicable in both hospital and clinic, especially useful in nightshift and peak season. Initially, we hope to design toehold switches that detect all subtypes of flu. However, Professor Chan pointed out that distinguishing all the | + | After listening to his advice, we decided to package our design as “point of care”, applicable in both hospital and clinic, especially useful in nightshift and peak season. Initially, we hope to design toehold switches that detect all subtypes of flu. However, Professor Chan pointed out that distinguishing all the subtypes of influenza in human is not very significant in tackling flu because current medicine can already defeat all types of influenza. He emphasized the importance of subtyping avian influenza virus because avian influenza has a much higher mortality rate compared with other mild flu. He explained the seriousness of H5N1 and H7N9 in Hong Kong (please visit our <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Hong_Kong-CUHK/Description">description page</a>). We agreed that having rapid on-site subtyping method for avian influenza is of the utmost importance. Therefore, we decided to construct toehold switches especially for subtyping avian influenza. |
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<center><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/b/bd/Prof_chan.jpeg" width="500px" height="auto"></center> | <center><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/b/bd/Prof_chan.jpeg" width="500px" height="auto"></center> | ||
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− | Similar to what Prof Chan suggested, Professor Sung also agreed that the project can be divided into two directions: medical diagnosis and influenza subtyping. He suggested that we can focus on influenza A in medical diagnosis track because of its high mutation rate. As for the latter, he appreciated our idea as subtyping characterization kit of influenza is rare in the market. However, he pointed out that chemical species in the patients sample may interfere with our cell free system. His advice | + | Similar to what Prof Chan suggested, Professor Sung also agreed that the project can be divided into two directions: medical diagnosis and influenza subtyping. He suggested that we can focus on influenza A in medical diagnosis track because of its high mutation rate. As for the latter, he appreciated our idea as subtyping characterization kit of influenza is rare in the market. However, he pointed out that chemical species in the patients sample may interfere with our cell free system. His advice encouraged us to investigate if whether pH can interfere our reporter protein (please visit our <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Hong_Kong-CUHK/Experiments">experiment page</a>) . |
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<b>2. Fork Eat, a local chicken farm (29 July 2017)</b> | <b>2. Fork Eat, a local chicken farm (29 July 2017)</b> | ||
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− | We also interviewed two local chicken farmers <b>Mr. Joe Lit</b> and Mr. <b>Charles Lam</b>. They are | + | We also interviewed two local chicken farmers <b>Mr. Joe Lit</b> and Mr. <b>Charles Lam</b>. They are founders of a local chicken farm and a restaurant named “Fork Eat”. Similar to the attitudes of chicken breeders association, they agreed that their role in Avian flu detection is very passive, as the government has the absolute right of slaughter. Moreover, they indicated that chicken farms in Hong Kong undergo 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> |
<center><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/6/6d/Forkeat.png" width="250px" height="auto"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/e/ee/CUHK_chickenfarm.jpg" width="250px" height="auto"></center> | <center><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/6/6d/Forkeat.png" width="250px" height="auto"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/e/ee/CUHK_chickenfarm.jpg" width="250px" height="auto"></center> | ||
<br><p style="font-family: roboto;font-size:115%;"> | <br><p style="font-family: roboto;font-size:115%;"> | ||
<u><b>Our Action</b></u><br> | <u><b>Our Action</b></u><br> | ||
− | Previously we have proposed government (eg | + | Previously we have proposed that the 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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href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1oEkq18ybkA1LkkuaXThKImYQDZmOWvqQ6faJkCM2KoQ/edit#responses">Click here to see the questionnaire result in India</a><br> | href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1oEkq18ybkA1LkkuaXThKImYQDZmOWvqQ6faJkCM2KoQ/edit#responses">Click here to see the questionnaire result in India</a><br> | ||
<a | <a | ||
− | href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1AlylkcRdCftYOQ1Em6Foq829TF-BLZNxWbKfZCcIkKY/edit#responses">Click here to see the questionnaire result in Vietnam</a | + | href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1AlylkcRdCftYOQ1Em6Foq829TF-BLZNxWbKfZCcIkKY/edit#responses">Click here to see the questionnaire result in Vietnam</a> |
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− | During | + | During interviews with different stakeholders, we found they are not separated, but integrated: some cross-linkings do exist among different field, for example, healthcare system mainly focuses on detecting the presence of influenza and they will forward suspected samples, which may be infected by avian influenza to government department for further subtyping so that both medical treatment and influenza identification can be undertaken separately and efficiently. This shows the tight junction between hospital and government in defeating influenza. Apart from the collaboration, different stakeholders are associated, for instance, Prof Chan had mentioned that in spite of high mortality rate of avian influenza, there is a quite high probability that patients can be recovered if they seek medical attention as early as possible. However, when communicating with the general public, we found that some of them thought that early detection is not really important. If there is a medium between the general public and medical experts and help convey some useful advice to the public, public awareness on early detection of influenza may be escalated, and we believe that’s also the mission of human practice. |
Latest revision as of 20:38, 1 November 2017