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Editorial
. 2020 May;31(5):553-555.
doi: 10.1016/j.annonc.2020.03.286. Epub 2020 Mar 19.

Managing COVID-19 in the oncology clinic and avoiding the distraction effect

F Cortiula  1 , A Pettke  2 , M Bartoletti  3 , F Puglisi  3 , T Helleday  4
Affiliations
Editorial

Managing COVID-19 in the oncology clinic and avoiding the distraction effect

F Cortiula et al. Ann Oncol. 2020 May.
No abstract available

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure The authors have declared no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Several factors influence how the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak will develop and end. (A) Viral spread is fastest in an immunologically-naive population at the outbreak and eventually immunity limits transmission. The success of the vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, currently in preparation for the clinical phase I trial, might be a turning point. (B) Viral evolution causes adaption to the host and a trade-off of high virulence for better transmissibility and lower virulence. While it is early days to predict how exactly virulence will evolve in SARS-CoV-2, its evolution is ongoing and there are indications that SARS-CoV-2 has evolved into two strains since its emergence; the ancestral S-strain and a more ‘aggressive’ L-strain. (C) Viruses survive much easier in a cold environment, as is reflected for example in the seasonality of influenza. (D) Increased and effective public health efforts are the foundation of all strategies to limit the spread of the virus and contribute to ending the outbreak. As the decreasing number of cases of SARS-CoV-2 in China depicts, rigid public health methods can be very successful in containing outbreaks.
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Comment in

  • SARS-CoV-2 disease and children under treatment for cancer.
    Terenziani M, Massimino M, Biassoni V, Casanova M, Chiaravalli S, Ferrari A, Luksch R, Meazza C, Podda M, Schiavello E, Spreafico F. Terenziani M, et al. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2020 Sep;67(9):e28346. doi: 10.1002/pbc.28346. Epub 2020 May 6. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2020. PMID: 32374054 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

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