Abstract
Background: COVID-19 is an emerging disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. It has caused millions of infected cases and thousands of deaths since January 2020. In Algeria, the situation seems less alarming with 58,272 confirmed cases and 1,973 deaths as of November 1, 2020. Aim of Study: To describe the clinical, biological and radiological profiles of our patients with COVID-19 during the first two months of the epidemic. Methods: Our study is prospective over two months (April 12-June 10, 2020) including 156 patients based on clinical, radiological and/or immunological criteria. Results: The study involved 77 men and 79 women with COVID-19 having a mean age of 48.97 ± 14.350 years. Common symptoms included asthenia (54.5%), anorexia (26.9%), fever (19.9%) and dry cough (52.6%). Biological inflammatory syndrome occurred in 32% of patients and Lymphopenia in 46%. Chest computed tomographic scans showed minimal to moderate lesions in 85.9% of cases. 56% of patients present at least one comorbidity: diabetes (25.6%), arterial hypertension (23.7%), obesity (21%), asthma (3.1%) and cancer (1.9%). The rapid serology test was positive in only 29% of 76 patients tested while RtPCR was positive in 35 of 55 patients tested. Length of hospital stay was 10 days for a half of patients while the rest received outpatient care. All patients were treated with hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and preventive heparin and were followed closely until the end of treatment. The use of another antibiotic or corticosteroid was rare (3.8% and 1.3% respectively). Only one death was recorded and no transfer to an intensive care unit. Conclusion: Our study showed that the situation was not very worrying in our population during the first two months of the epidemic. A very close surveillance of new infected cases and the analysis of their clinical profile during the following months are the subject of work in progress.
Highlights
In December 2019, the first cases of unexplained pneumonia were reported in Wuhan, China, caused by a novel coronavirus [1, 2]
The disease caused by this virus, later named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO), quickly spread in China and around the world causing on November 1, 2020 more than one million deaths and 46 million infected cases [3, 4]
Adults with a diagnosis of COVID-19 confirmed by serology test (IgM, IgG) and/or by RT-PCR (Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) and/or radiological signs on chest Computed Tomography (CT) compatible with the disease were included in the study
Summary
In December 2019, the first cases of unexplained pneumonia were reported in Wuhan, China, caused by a novel coronavirus [1, 2] This virus was temporarily named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The disease caused by this virus, later named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO), quickly spread in China and around the world causing on November 1, 2020 more than one million deaths and 46 million infected cases [3, 4]. The objective of the present study was to describe the clinical, biological and radiological profiles of our patients with COVID-19 during the first two months of the epidemic. Aim of Study: To describe the clinical, biological and radiological profiles of our patients with COVID-19 during the first two months of the epidemic. A very close surveillance of new infected cases and the analysis of their clinical profile during the following months are the subject of work in progress
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