Major Symptoms and Outcome of Covid-19 Positive Patients: A Study in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Bangladesh

Abstract

Background: An outbreak of Covid-19 caused by the SARS-Cov-2 initially emerged in China in December 2019 and the first Covid-19 patient was detected on 8 March 2020 in Bangladesh. The preconception about the major symptoms and outcomes of Covid-19-positive patients may be helpful for healthcare professionals in the management of Covid-19 patients. This study aimed to evaluate the major symptoms and outcomes of covid-19 positive patients.
 Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted in the Department of Medicine, Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, Rajshahi, Bangladesh from January 2021 to December 2021. In total 67 confirmed Covid-19 cases by RT-PCR tests who attended the mentioned hospital were enrolled in this study as the study population. For data collection, a pre-designed questionnaire was used. Along with demographic and clinical features data regarding in-hospital mortality, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, use of invasive mechanical ventilation, total hospital length of stay, complications, and treatment patterns were recorded. Collected data were processed, analyzed and disseminated by using the MS Excel program.
 Results: The highest number of patients were with a cough which was found among 49% of cases. Besides this, shortness of breath, hypoxemia/oxygen use, lower limb swelling and bleeding were found among 39%, 27%, 12% and the rest 7% of patients respectively. The highest number of patients were with hypertension (HTN) as comorbidity which was found in 15% of cases. Besides this, diabetes mellitus (DM), chronic kidney diseases (CKD), chronic respiratory diseases (CRD), cancer/immunodeficiency and cardiac diseases were found among 12, 10%, 7%, 4% and the rest 1% of patients, respectively. As the outcomes, the cure rate was found up to 97% and death occurred in only 3% (n=2) cases. We observed that 10% of patients did not stay at the hospital even for a single day. For only 7% of patients, ventilation facilities were in needed and the average ventilation time was 13.5 days.
 Conclusion: Cough and shortness of breath are two major symptoms for Covid-19 patients. Proper ventilation and ICU facilities can decrease the suffering, mortality as well as morbidity of Covid-19 patients.