Since the first reported case of monkeypox in the UK in May 2022, there has been an upward trend in monkeypox cases and a global outbreak. However, reports of severe cases are relatively limited. In this study, we report a case of severe monkeypox in a patient with HIV. The patient presented with skin lesions that started on his face and around the penis and persisted for several months. Throughout the course of the disease, he received systematic symptomatic supportive treatment, topical remedies, and special care for the rash. He also underwent cidofovir antiviral therapy and smallpox‐vaccinated healthy population‐derived plasma therapy in succession, with the condition ultimately showing improvement after plasma treatment. After more than 3 months of hospitalization, he fully recovered. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported use of smallpox‐vaccinated healthy population‐derived plasma in the treatment of severe monkeypox cases.

Since the new iLABMED was founded in June 2023, it has published three issues with 21 articles (till Dec 2023). As a journal majored in laboratory medicine, iLABMED also has to face many opportunities and challenges of laboratory medicine. This editorial summarized the main opportunities and challenges faced by iLABMED. The future prospects of laboratory medicine, which must be highlighted by iLABMED were also discussed based on a brief review of the current advances in laboratory medicine. iLABMED will continue to provide a useful platform for general‐interested, insightful, and informative articles with high quality.

Nowadays, public health is facing many challenges, mainly including non‐communicable diseases and communicable diseases. Communicable diseases, particularly emerging infectious diseases, have also attracted attention due to their enormous impact on public health and the global economy. The most prominent example is the current global Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic. The unprecedented and ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic has highlighted the necessity for readily available, accurate, and rapid laboratory medicine (LM) practices. Nevertheless, current LMs and journals in particular have a window for improvement. First, there are limited numbers of professionals available in this field compared to the other disciplines. The current status quo is that most LM manuscripts must be submitted to comprehensive journals or other journals related to the research disease. Second, most LM journals are run by laboratory personnel who are often more concerned with technical advances than with clinical needs. Lastly, several young LM scientists expressed their desire to have a dedicated platform to discuss, communicate, and publish their works on LM. We were therefore motivated to launch iLABMED, an international public forum dedicated to LMs. The establishment of iLABMED adopts the “four I” strategy, namely “Innovation,” “Intelligence,” “Integration,” and “International.” We are attempting to establish a top‐tier journal in the field of LM.

The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 (or Omicron) is extremely contagious and has swept the world in a short period. Shenzhen—a new international city in China with a permanent population of 17.56 million and covering nearly 2000 square kilometers—was attacked by Omicron in 2022. However, the pandemic was controlled in a very short time as a result of prompt government reaction that prevented the variant's further spread. The total number of cases in this wave of the pandemic was more than 2600. Shenzhen's successful experience in tackling the Omicron wave deserves in-depth discussion. Proposed by American scholar Robert Heath, the 4Rs model aims to reduce the harm from a crisis through the measures of reduction, readiness, response, and recovery. This article presents the successful experience of Shenzhen's local government and the Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen, the only hospital in Shenzhen designated to use the 4Rs emergency management model for the treatment of COVID-19 during the 2022 Omicron wave of the pandemic.