Abstract
The recently discovered novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has emerged in Wuhan, China, since January 2020. Egypt reported a low incidence of infection when compared with other countries. The aim of the study was to assess the characterization of COVID-19 infection among the Egyptian population. Data were collected from a single COVID-19 quarantine hospital in Cairo. A total number of 195 cases were included with their clinical, laboratory, and radiological data. Three different age groups behaved differently for COVD-19 infection. The pediatric age group was asymptomatic entirely, the middle age group (18-50 years) were asymptomatic in 53.3% of cases, while 77.9% of those above 50 years were symptomatic (p ≤ 0.001). The latter group had a high incidence of COVID-pneumonia in (83.1%), and moderate to critical presentations were encountered in 66.3% of them. Neutrophil to lymphocyte (N/L) ratio correlated directly with the age and case severity. C-reactive protein (CRP) and computed tomography scan chest (CT-chest) had added value on COVID-19 diagnosis in suspected cases. In Egypt, patients above 50 years are at a higher risk for symptomatic COVID-19 infection and leaner for moderate to critical COVID-19 presentation. The triad of CT-chest, CRP, and N/L ratio could be an integrated panel for assessing disease severity.
Highlights
The recently discovered novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has emerged in Wuhan, China, since January 2020
COVID-19 had shown different aspects of clinical presentations according to the category of age groups
The COVID-19 infection has a dynamic behavior, and its characteristic presentation in Egypt was similar to the rest of the world
Summary
The recently discovered novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has emerged in Wuhan, China, since January 2020. The pediatric age group was asymptomatic entirely, the middle age group (18-50 years) were asymptomatic in 53.3% of cases, while 77.9% of those above 50 years were symptomatic (p ≤ 0.001) The latter group had a high incidence of COVID-pneumonia in (83.1%), and moderate to critical presentations were encountered in 66.3% of them. The end of 2019 was marked by the emergence of a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which was initially reported in Wuhan, China [1]. Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in December 2019, there has been an escalation in numbers of reported confirmed cases worldwide to exceed 20 million, with more than 700,000 deaths, according to World Health Organization (WHO), as of August 1, 2020 [2]. Infected persons can shed the virus early during infection [8,9]
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