Information on COVID-19 (coronavirus SARS-CoV-2)

On this page, which we will be updated regularly, you will find useful links to further information, scientific news and contributions from experts on coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and COVID-19.

For patients:

The University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) Mainz has created an information page especially for this topic (German only):

https://www.unimedizin-mainz.de/coronavirus-covid-19.html

Here you will find the answers to the most frequently asked questions from the patient's perspective.

You will also find important audio and video contributions on the topic by i.e. Prof. Dr. Bodo Plachter, virologist from Mainz and member of the Research Center for Immunotherapy (FZI).

 

For students:

Information for students of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz:

https://sl-en.uni-mainz.de/information-regarding-the-coronavirus/

The JGU has put another website online, which provides information on how the university deals with the current situation:
https://www.uni-mainz.de/eng/3711.php

For medical students, the University Medical Center has collected further information (German only):

http://www.um-mainz.de/rfl/studium-lehre/corona-faq

 

For scientifically interested persons:

Since we are constantly receiving queries on this topic, we have compiled helpful links and documents that answer many of the frequently asked questions:

Situation in Germany

In Germany, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) is the central institution of the Federal Government in the field of disease surveillance and prevention and provides important information on the current topic. A direct link to their corona information page can be found here. Further, daily situation reports including case numbers in Germany are published there.

Situation wordwide

For those who would like to inform themselves about the situation and especially about the number of infections in Europe and worldwide, various websites are available

Scientific publications

For those who would like to inform about current publications can do so, for example, via PubMed.

The leading scientific journals publish news about Corona almost daily.
Here is a selection:

Resume from China

We have also received information about COVID-19 from the WHO office in China. It is available for download here:

Testing methods

Plenty of questions arise about the test for coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The most established and meaningful method consists of several steps:

      1. Smear is taken from the nasopharynx.
      2. Thereof, viral RNA is purified.
      3. By using RT-qPCR, viral RNA - if present - is amplified and detected.

The whole procedure takes around 6 to 8 hours and can only be performed in the laboratory, not in a medical practice. An exemplary diagnosis can be found here.There is a constant demand for faster or alternative testing methods that are under current investigation.

Since March 8th every resident of Rhineland palatine can get tested by an antigen-quicktest for free once a week. Find more information on https://corona.rlp.de/de/testen/.

Therapy

To date, there is neither a concrete therapy nor specific medication for the disease, which is why patients are treated solely symptomatically. At present, individual treatment trials are being carried out for particularly severe disease courses to test drugs whose efficacy has already been proven for other diseases and which are now also expected to have a positive effect against the novel virus. However, the major goal remains the development of a specific vaccine. The Mainz-based biotech company BioNTech has chosen a novel approach and is working at full speed on mRNA-based vaccination. An interview with the CEO of BioNTech and FZI member Prof. Dr. Ugur Sahin about the current state of research can be found here.