Clinical-epidemiological characteristics of adults hospitalized with Covid–19 in the Republic of Moldova

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Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has a major negative impact on health and socio-economic well-being. Understanding the characteristics of COVID-19 disease and identifying the wide range of factors affecting health and quality of life can be the key to providing viable solutions to improve the management of patients and their physical and psycho-emotional rehabilitation. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the influence of SARS CoV-2 infection on the health status of adults hospitalized with the diagnosis of COVID-19 in the Republic of Moldova. Material and methods: The presented study is a retrospective, cohort, consisting of a sample of 7441 patients randomly selected, aged 18 y.o. and older, hospitalized in 10 public medical institutions in Chisinau, Moldova. Diagnosis of COVID-19 was confirmed by detection of CoV-2 SARS RNA. The data in the patients’ medical records were processed and stored according to the unified, pre-established form, prepared in accordance with the requirements of the software „Electronic Patient Record COVID-19”. The severity of COVID-19 disease was assessed using two principles: (1) according to the criteria of the National Clinical Protocol PCN-371; (2) according to the 7-point graduated scale developed by the WHO Special Committee (V.3.0, 3 March 2020) in randomized multicenter clinical trials. Result: Only 30.07% patients mentioned the presence of a close contact with a COVID-19 positive person. The average age of the patients in the study was 52.83 years. Mild form was diagnosed in 5.00% of patients, medium - 66.15%, severe –20.67%, critical-8.18%. The main complaints of patients were fever, fatigue or physical asthenia, cough, and headache. More than 1/4 of those hospitalized have severe or critical forms of COVID-19; more than 1/3 - require oxygen therapy, and every 6-th patient needs non-invasive high-flow oxygen ventilation or mechanical ventilation. Old age, male sex, chronic comorbidities increase statistically significantly the probability of patients having an unfavorable prognosis in COVID-19. 7.93% of patients died, according to the age group: every 2-nd patient over 90 years, every 3-rd over 80 years, every 5-th over 70 years, and every 9-th over 60 years died. Conclusions: (1) The uncertainty of the source of infection lead to delay specific prophylactic public health measures; (2) In COVID-19, in a hospital-type medical management, the emphasis should be placed mainly on patients over the age of 50; (3) There is no specific clinical manifestation in COVID-19, that would allow to distinguish the disease from other pathologies; (4) Age over 60 y.o., male sex, and chronic cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidneys diseases and malignant tumors unfavorable influence the evolution of COVID-19; (5) Antibiotic administration remains at a high level in hospitalized patients and is often unjustified and unnecessary.