The city-wide full-scale interactive application of sewage surveillance programme for assisting real-time COVID-19 pandemic control - A case study in Hong Kong.

The paper discusses the implementation of Hong Kong's tailor-made sewage surveillance programme led by the Government, which has demonstrated how an efficient and well-organized sewage surveillance system can complement conventional epidemiological surveillance to facilitate the planning of intervention strategies and actions for combating COVID-19 pandemic in real-time. This included the setting up of a comprehensive sewerage network-based SARS-CoV-2 virus surveillance programme with 154 stationary sites covering 6 million people (or 80 % of the total population), and employing an intensive monitoring programme to take samples from each stationary site every 2 days. From 1 January to 22 May 2022, the daily confirmed case count started with 17 cases per day on 1 January to a maximum of 76,991 cases on 3 March and dropped to 237 cases on 22 May.

Use of Sewage Surveillance for COVID-19: A Large-Scale Evidence-Based Program in Hong Kong.

Background: Sewage surveillance, by detecting SARS-CoV-2 virus circulation at the community level, has the potential to supplement individual surveillance for COVID-19. However, to date, there have been no reports about the large-scale implementation and validation of sewage surveillance for public health action.

Objective: Here, we developed a standardized approach for SARS-CoV-2 detection in sewage and applied it prospectively to supplement public health interventions.

Hepatitis C is associated with perturbation of intrahepatic myeloid and plasmacytoid dendritic cell function.

Background/aims: In most cases infection with hepatitis C results in chronic infection as a consequence of viral subversion and failed anti-viral immune responses. The suggestion that dendritic cells are defective in chronic HCV infection led us to investigate the phenotype and function of liver-derived myeloid (mDC) and plasmacytoid (pDC) dendritic cells in patients with chronic HCV infection.

Methods: Liver DCs were isolated without expansion in cytokines from human liver allowing us to study unmanipulated tissue-resident DCs ex vivo.

The effect of molecular adsorbent recirculating system on pathophysiological parameters in patients with acute liver failure.

Objective: To investigate the effect of the molecular adsorbent recirculating system (MARS) on physiological variables in patients with acute liver failure.

Design: A prospective, observational study of MARS in addition to standard medical therapy in the management of patients presenting with acute liver failure.

Setting: A regional liver transplant centre.