Infectious Diseases Department

Introduction to the Department of Infectious Diseases

The Department of Infectious Diseases of Peking University Third Hospital was established in 2006. Under the leadership of Director XU Jie, all department staff worked hard, overcame difficulties, and gradually grew and expanded. The department initially had 6 physicians, including 2 with doctoral degrees and 2 with senior associate professional titles, and 12 nurses, including 4 nurse practitioners. The department comprised the Hepatitis Clinic, Fever Clinic, Intestinal Clinic, and Prevention Clinic, with 3 emergency observation beds. It was mainly responsible for the diagnosis, treatment, and screening of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, respiratory infectious diseases, and intestinal infectious diseases, and withstood the test of the major influenza outbreak in 2009.

After several years of dedicated hard work, the Department of Infectious Diseases Ward was established in 2011 to admit various infectious diseases. Since the end of 2019, when the COVID-19 epidemic raged, all medical and nursing staff of the Department of Infectious Diseases united as one, remained resilient and tenacious, resisted the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, and successfully completed the hospital’s epidemic prevention, control, and treatment tasks.

In 2022, a new leadership team was established, and Director LU Ming took over the baton of the Department of Infectious Diseases and continued to lead everyone forward. The entire department adheres to a scientific, rigorous, and advanced attitude, and its work advances in parallel and develops together in the three areas of medical care, education, and research.

The department currently has 18 physicians, including 14 with doctoral degrees, 2 with master’s degrees, 4 with senior professional titles, 2 with senior associate professional titles, 9 with intermediate professional titles, and 2 graduate supervisors. There are 27 nurses, including 11 with bachelor’s degrees, 3 charge nurses, and 9 nurse practitioners.

The department currently operates the Hepatitis Clinic, which is mainly responsible for the diagnosis and treatment of viral hepatitis, fatty liver, alcoholic liver disease, drug-induced liver injury, immune-mediated liver diseases, and diseases related to abnormal liver function of unknown cause; the Infectious Diseases Clinic, which is responsible for the diagnosis and treatment of various infectious and communicable diseases and anti-infective treatment; the Fever Emergency Clinic and Intestinal Emergency Clinic, which mainly undertake the screening and treatment of various infectious diseases and are equipped with independent infusion and resuscitation rooms; and the Department of Infectious Diseases Ward, which was newly upgraded and renovated in 2021 into a fully negative-pressure ward with a total of 25 beds, including 1 ICU bed and 1 negative-pressure operating room, and can independently complete bedside bronchoscopy procedures and examinations. The ward mainly treats COVID-19 pneumonia, pneumonia in immunosuppressed populations, community-acquired pneumonia, central nervous system infections, intra-abdominal infections, soft-tissue infections, urinary tract infections, and other infectious and communicable diseases. In addition, it has extensive clinical diagnostic and treatment experience in the differential diagnosis of fever of unknown origin and lymphadenopathy of undetermined cause.

In terms of teaching, the Department of Infectious Diseases of Peking University Third Hospital has long served as a standardized residency training base in Beijing, and in 2011 officially became an Infectious Diseases teaching base for eight-year graduate students of the Peking University Health Science Center. It undertakes the bridge course in infectious diseases, clerkships, and large-class teaching in infectious diseases for Peking University medical graduate students. Our department also undertakes continuing education in infectious diseases for the hospital’s medical personnel.

In terms of research, the Department of Infectious Diseases has also achieved historic breakthroughs. It currently has 1 associate research fellow, associate professor, and graduate supervisor, has received multiple National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Funds, and has published dozens of high-quality articles in recent years. The number of clinical trial projects undertaken has also grown steadily; during the first half of 2023 alone, it undertook 7 clinical trial projects.

Today, the Department of Infectious Diseases is moving forward with a younger mindset and stronger momentum, striving to build a first-class infectious disease diagnosis and treatment center in China as soon as possible.