Zhang Jixian: the First Doctor to Report Novel Coronavirus

Zhang Jixian is director of the Respiratory and Intensive Care Unit of Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine. She was a member of the Expert Group of Jianghan District of Wuhan during the SARS outbreak in 2003. With an extremely acute professional awareness, Zhang was the first person to make the correct diagnosis and insist on reporting the epidemic to the higher authorities. She was the first to sound the alarm for the prevention of the virus.

On December 27, 2019, Zhang Jixian was surprised to find that three of her patients – the parents and the son – had similar CT images of their lungs. As the results of various influenza-related tests on these three patients were all negative, she immediately alerted the hospital chief to this situation, who forwarded her report to the Jianghan District Center for Disease Control and Prevention. In the following two days, the hospital received another three patients with similar symptoms and lung photos, and Zhang reported this to the hospital again, thus becoming the first doctor to report the COVID-19 epidemic.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, Zhang was responsible for the treatment of critically ill patients with a very heavy workload. She arrived at the hospital at 7:30 every morning, knowing that a hectic schedule awaited her to make the rounds of the wards and formulate diagnosis and treatment schemes. She was often heavily occupied until after 10 o'clock at night. 

Due to her timely discovery and adequate preparation, no medical staff in Zhang's department has been infected with the virus and no cross-infection has occurred among her patients. Zhang was awarded a merit for her outstanding performance in the fight against the epidemic on February 4 by the Human Resources and Social Security Department and the Health Committee of Hubei Province.

張繼先：疫情上報“第一人”

張繼先，湖北省中西醫(yī)結(jié)合醫(yī)院呼吸與重癥醫(yī)學(xué)科主任，在非典疫情防治期間曾擔(dān)任武漢市江漢區(qū)專家組成員。她以超強的專業(yè)意識，最早判斷并堅持上報新冠肺炎疫情，在中國率先拉響了疫情防控警報。

2019年12月27日，張繼先發(fā)現(xiàn)接診的病人中有一家三口肺部CT檢查結(jié)果顯示肺部表現(xiàn)相同，在給患者做了各項流感相關(guān)檢查結(jié)果呈陰性后，她立即向醫(yī)院做了情況匯報，并由醫(yī)院上報給江漢區(qū)疾控中心。隨后兩天，醫(yī)院門診又收治了3名癥狀和肺部表現(xiàn)一致的患者，張繼先再次上報給醫(yī)院，由此成為此次新冠肺炎疫情上報的“第一人”。

新冠肺炎疫情防控期間，作為呼吸內(nèi)科主任，張繼先負責(zé)危重患者救治，工作量非常大。她每天七點半到醫(yī)院，查房了解病情，制定診療方案，經(jīng)常忙到晚上十點以后。由于發(fā)現(xiàn)及時、準備充分，張繼先所在科室做到了無一例醫(yī)護人員感染和無一例患者交叉感染。2020年2月4日，湖北省人力資源和社會保障廳、湖北省衛(wèi)生健康委員會決定給予在疫情防控期間表現(xiàn)突出的張繼先記大功獎勵。