CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND OUTCOME OF PATIENTS WITH SEVERE ACUTE RESPIRATORY INFECTION (SARI) DURING COVID PANDEMIC OF A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL IN CHENNAI

Abstract

BACKGROUND: SARI is one of the clinical manifestations of COVID-19 disease. As per WHO SARI is dened as an acute respiratory infection with a history of fever or measured fever of ≥ 38 C°; and cough with onset within the last 10 days and requires hospitalization. AIMS/OBJECTIVES: To describe clinical characteristics and factors associated with the clinical outcome of patients presenting with SARI at our hospital. METHODOLOGY: This is a record-based cross-sectional study that included all cases admitted in the SARI ward in Government Stanley Hospital, a tertiary care center in Chennai designated for the management of case denition and screened for SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 between 15th March 2020 and 15th December 2020.RESULTS:Atotal of 246 patients were included in the study period from 15th March to 15th May 2020. The median age was 49.4 years and 56.9% were males. The most common symptom was fever (69.1%) followed by cough (62.6% ), Breathlessness (62.6%), and sore throat (52.8%) in our study. Of this 4 (1.8%) were tested positive for COVID-19. Of the 5 (2.1 %) patients who expired. CONCLUSION: In our single-center tertiary the incidence of COVID-19 among the SARI patients done between March-May 2020 showed an incidence rate of 1.8%