Please give a thought to the scientists who are doing the research and testing for SARS-CoV-2 virus in Italy and elsewhere. Like the front-line doctors and nurses we all owe them our thanks and best wishes at this difficult time.

Dr Giuseppe Aprea and colleagues at the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise.

One of our many luncheon visitors was Giuseppe Aprea from the Sorrento area in Italy. At the time he was doing his PhD at Loughry with Dr Michael Mullan. Now Dr Aprea, Giuseppe is currently a Veterinary Manager Officer for the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise "Giuseppe Caporale" (IZSAM). He is an expert in virology and he and his colleagues are performing the official analysis of human swab samples for SARS-CoV-2 virus, the causal agent of Covid-19 in the Abruzzo Region. This region has over 1000 cases of Covid-19.

Dr Aprea is personally processing over 100 samples per day. Currently some 30% of the samples tested are positive for the virus.