UTMB’s Gal Levy used 3D printing technology to help a patient unable to breathe right for more than a year after a cardiac bypass surgery performed at another hospital did not allow his sternum to heal properly. Levy used the 3D printed ribcage to pre-place surgical plates days before the patient was in the operating room, cutting down on surgery and recovery time.

Many have become concerned that reusable products may promote the spread of coronavirus and other illnesses. However, many experts point out that even minor cleaning of reusable products will actually help dissolve or destroy the virus. “If you are regularly cleaning stuff, you should be fine,” said UTMB’s Vineet Menachery. This story originally appeared in Grist.

Texas has the highest share of uninsured residents of any state, which could complicate efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19. Often people without insurance may forego seeing a physician or taking off from work, even if they are sick. “Those are patients that are likely to have a lower-paying job and might have other economic stressors at home, they have kids they to get food on the table for,” said UTMB internal medicine resident Patrik Hornak. The Houston Chronicle, The College Station Eagle, KAMR Amarillo, Houston Public Media and San Antonio Express-News also published this story.

This Washington Post story included in previous highlights has been reprinted in national and international publications. UTMB’s Vineet Menachery was a story contributor. “With respiratory infections like this, we usually see a U-shaped curve on who gets hit the hardest. Young children at one end of the U because their immune systems aren’t developed and old people at the other end because their immune systems grow weaker,” said Menachery. “With this virus, one side of the U is just completely missing,” The story has appeared in MSN Ireland, The Nation Thailand, KDFW Dallas, The New Zealand Herald, Anchorage Daily News, Stars and Stripes and MiDIARIO Panama.

Reporting on UTMB efforts to develop new tests for diagnosing COVID-19 cases and another to better understand the history and mutation of the virus. “It’s basically the same kind of test that CDC and others have put forward,” said UTMB’s Jim Le Duc. “We’ve tried to improve it just a little bit. We are just at the stage of validating that.”

A COVID-19 town hall meeting was held in UTMB’s Levin Hall, Friday, March 6. The meeting was conducted to provide an update on what we know about the new virus, how our world-class infectious disease scientists are studying it, and how UTMB plans to respond if and when our region is affected.

Austin’s NBC affiliate examines the role that telemedicine plays in the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, which includes patients being remotely diagnosed via video visits with physicians. “When it comes to telemedicine, it’s most important strength is to keep healthy people safe,” said UTMB’s Alexander Vo. “It allows patients to access clinicians and transmit reliable healthcare information while avoiding crowds and hospital setting where potential contamination could occur.”

In 2016, a team of scientists in Texas had helped develop a vaccine to protect against a deadly strain of coronavirus but could not get funding to begin testing in humans. Dr. James Le Duc, director of the Galveston National Laboratory at UTMB, said work has resumed on the SARS vaccine UTMB researchers helped develop.

A report on work being done at Texas Medical Center Institutions to combat COVID-19. This virus “shares some similarities with other known viruses, but it’s new to science,” said UTMB’s James Le Duc.

Victor Sierpina writes that readers may be grateful for things did not happen. He explains he and his wife are grateful they were on board the Diamond Princess the week before a patient carrying COVID-19 was onboard.