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Health care workers with prior work experience during the 2003 SARS outbreak did not have worse mental health outcomes during COVID-19 compared with those without this experience.

Research exploring inhaled nitric oxide’s potential to treat COVID-19 is underway.

Abiomed announced it has acquired Breethe, developer of an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation system, in an effort to better support patients with cardiogenic shock or other conditions which produce insufficient oxygen to the lungs.

As researchers continue to assess complications of COVID-19, one striking difference has become clear — men who contract the novel coronavirus are more likely to be intubated or die compared with women. Animal model studies of the SARS virus suggest that the age and sex differences in COVID-19 symptom severity may be due to the protective and acute actions of estrogen, and researchers are initiating a trial designed to find out whether a transdermal estrogen patch placed on the skin of COVID-19-positive patients can reduce symptom severity compared with regular care.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left academic institutions, government bodies and the private sector scrambling to find drugs to combat the novel coronavirus.

Several American and European cardiology societies issued statements to dispel misinformation circulating about an association between treatment with renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system antagonists such as ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers and increased risk for COVID-19 and increased severity of the disease for those who have contracted COVID-19.

The novel coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China, is having a global impact, raising concerns about a pandemic.

Last week, WHO officially declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Although few cases have been reported thus far in the United States, the virus’ impact may be reaching beyond the physical scope and affecting the mental health of children and adolescents by stoking anxiety, according to Robin Gurwitch, PhD, psychologist at Duke University Medical Center.

A report that found infections were responsible for 13% of all new worldwide cancer diagnoses in 2018 was the top story in infectious disease last week.