| Interviewee details |
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Interviewee
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Professor Yuen Kwok Yung
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Job title during SARS
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Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Microbiology of the University of Hong Kong (HKU)
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Appointment held at time of interview
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Chair of Infectious Disease at the Department of Microbiology of the University of Hong Kong (HKU)
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Language / Dialect
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Cantonese
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Summary of interview
Professor Yuen recalls the role he himself and the Department of Microbiology, HKU played during SARS: together with HKU’s team, his warning against the epidemic involving a new infectious disease in Guangzhou; the discovery of the SARS Coronavirus as the cause of the disease SARS by the HKU research team; the tracing of the original source of the SARS Coronavirus to the exotic animal market in Guangzhou and how it was related to the coronavirus found in Horseshoe Bats; and the importance of research in infectious diseases in terms of disease control. He also reviews the contribution of research done by HKU’s team, from H5N1 bird flu, SARS and then Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and the effects of medications used to treat SARS, as well as criticism of the government’s lack of support for research in the control of infectious diseases in earlier days.
