An ERS Task Force committee composed of specialists in the field of respiratory infections and critical care and experts from the Chinese Thoracic Society have published a set of living guidelines on the management of hospitalised adults with coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

COVID-19 could pass into people's lungs from saliva with the virus moving directly from mouth to bloodstream - particularly if individuals are suffering from gum disease, according to new research. Evidence shows that blood vessels of the lungs, rather than airways, are affected initially in COVID-19 lung disease with high concentrations of the virus in saliva and periodontitis associated with increased risk of death.

Coronavirus researchers under Prof. Rolf Hilgenfeld of the University of Lübeck and Dr. Albrecht von Brunn of the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich published a research breakthrough in the highly ranked "EMBO Journal". They discovered how SARS viruses enhance the production of viral proteins in infected cells, so that many new copies of the virus can be generated. Other coronaviruses apart from SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 do not use this mechanism, thereby providing a possible explanation for the much higher pathogenicity of the SARS viruses.

Cardiopulmonary bypass is necessary to adequately treat patients in the course of cardiac surgery. The kidney is the first to react to cardiopulmonary bypass. Postoperative acute renal failure is a much feared complication associated with high mortality after heart surgery, Frank Muench (Universitätsklinik Erlangen) emphasizes in the new textbook "Extracorporeal Circulation".