Ivan Hung

Professor Ivan Fan Ngai HUNG is currently Chair Professor of Infectious Diseases, Ru Chien and Helen Lieh Endowed Professor in Health Sciences Pedagogy, Associate Dean (Partnership & Engagement), Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, and Honorary Consultant in Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong. He is also Chair Professor and Chief-of-Service of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology at the HKU-Shenzhen Hospital.

Professor Hung is a dual specialist in Infectious Disease and Gastroenterology & Hepatology. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Bristol Medical School, England in 1996. After working in the University of Cambridge Medical School and Charing Cross Hospital, London, he returned to Hong Kong in 1999 and joined the Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital. He was awarded the Anti-SARS gold badge award by the Hospital Authority in 2003 for his role in combating SARS as frontline medical officer. He received the Sir Patrick Manson Gold Medal award for best M.D. thesis. He was awarded the Richard Yu Lectureship and medal in 2016 by the Hong Kong College of Physicians. He was awarded the prestigious Outstanding Researcher Award from the University of Hong Kong in 2019. He is the Fellow of Royal Colleges of Physicians of London and Edinburgh, and fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America.

Professor Hung has published more than 380 international peer reviewed original articles, including research articles in the Lancet, Nature, the Lancet Infectious Diseases and the Clinical Infectious Diseases. His research interest includes influenza, SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory virus antiviral treatment and vaccinology. He has pioneered the use of the triple combination of interferon beta-1b, lopinavir/ ritonavir and ribavirin in the treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, resulting in significantly faster clinical alleviation and viral load suppression. He and his team also pioneered the application of topical imiquimod before intradermal influenza vaccination, which results in protection against heterologous non-vaccine and antigenically drifted viruses. He was also the first to prove convalescent plasma and H-IVIG reduced mortality in patients with severe influenza infection in prospective clinical trials. He is ranked as HKU Scholars in the world top 1% in 2013, 2018-2023 (H-index 72) and most highly cited researcher in 2023 by the Clarivate. He is the world-leading expert in the field of antiviral and vaccinology for influenza and COVID-19 infection. Professor Hung believes in innovation, team-work and clinical application of translational research in tackling threats from emerging infectious diseases.