on the evening of april 23, 2020, an online exchange meeting was successfully held between tsinghua university latin america center and the universidad católica de chile, in which chinese and chilean medical experts shared their experience in covid-19 diagnosis. authoritative medical experts from peking union medical college hospital and china international exchange and promotion association for medical and healthcare introduced china's experience in the diagnosis ofcovid-19 pandemic to more than 20 medical directors and public health experts of chile.
the experts who were invited to the conference from peking union medical college hospital are all members of the national medical team which supported wuhan during the epidemic and have very rich front-line clinical experience. at the beginning of the meeting, dr. xiao meng from the department of laboratory medicine of the peking union medical college hospital introduced the china's experience and practice in terms of patient triage in medical institutions, diagnostic test methods and process, selection of testing reagents, discharge criteria, and patient management, respectively.
chinese and chilean medical experts exchange experiences in the diagnosis of covid-19
then, dr. blanca peñaloza, medical director of san joaquin medical center in chile, introduced thetesting currently being performed in chile, the format of diagnosis and, the advantages and disadvantages of the medical institutions.on the other hand, on behalf of the chilean medical experts, she also askeda series of questions to the chinese medical experts, such as: how to choose the testing methods, the solutions for asymptomatic infectious disease cases, the way to screen suspected cases, and the clinical manifestations of common confirmed cases, which were professionally and carefully answered by the chinese experts.
dr. blanca peñaloza introduces the situation of chile to chinese experts
dr. cao wei, deputychief physician in department of infectious diseases of peking union medical college hospital, said that the comprehensive testing as well as the follow-up are two important aspects, but both require a lot of resources. chile will need to address this issue in the future. regarding asymptomatic patients, she pointed that "if there is not a large number of new confirmed cases in an area for a period of time, then the probability of having asymptomatic patients is lower. the biggest concern in china right now is the imported asymptomatic cases from abroad. the current practice for asymptomatic cases is to isolate and observe them for 2-3 weeks to see if there is a clinical manifestation and whether there is a confirmed case among all of the close contacts".
dr. xie jing from the department of infectious disease at peking union medical college hospital, responded, "the type of test to be used depends on whether it is for early diagnosis or a large-scale investigation for public health purposes. if it is for clinical diagnostic purposes, then a combination of testswill be needed; if it is for clinical manifestation and epidemiological clues, the laboratory test will be used; if it is for investigations related to public health purposes, the antibody tests will be sufficient."
dr. yan xiaowei, chief physician of the department of cardiology at peking union medical college hospital, emphasized that pcr test remains as an important method to determine whether the patients should be isolated or allowed to discharge. according to the seventh edition of the national treatment protocol for new coronavirus pneumonia, patients who will be discharged from the hospital need to have at least two negative pcr tests.
chinese medical expertsengaged in the fight against covid-19 responded kindly to the questions raised by chilean medical colleagues
at the end of the conference, prof. zhang yuqing, vice chairman of the hypertension committee of china international exchange and promotion association for medical and healthcare and professor of cardiology at fuwai hospital of chinese academy of medical sciences, mentioned the link between the new coronavirus and hypertensive heart diseases, and expressed his willingness to work with medical colleagues from chile and around the world to discuss the best solutions in terms of prevention, control and treatment, as well as policies.
prof. zhang yuqing shared his experience with medical professionals in chile
medical experts from the chilean side agreed that the conference was very informative, professional and practical, which provided a good reference for guiding chilean doctors to do better in diagnosis and treatment during the outbreak period.
dr. pedro bouchon, vice rector of the universidad católica de chile, said, "we have a long relationship with tsinghua university, and we really appreciate that tsinghua university latin america center could co-host this conference with us, which is the best one i have ever experienced during the epidemic. we would like to express our gratitude for the generosity of the chinese medical experts who took time out of their busy schedules to sharetheir experience with us while attending to the patients. i believe you will be proud when our country finally gets through this difficult time, as your valuable input will undoubtedly be a key part of our future work."
closingremarks given by the vice-rector of the universidad católica de chile
professor chen taotao, director of tsinghua latin american center, said that "chinese and chilean people have a deep friendship. we will work together with our chilean partners to face the most difficult time and continue to maintain our cooperation. i firmly believe that under the strong leadership of the chilean government, the chilean people can overcome the outbreak as soon as possible".
