Understanding the clinical and demographic characteristics of second coronavirus spike in 192 patients in Tehran, Iran: A retrospective study.

Hamid Zaferani Arani,Hesam Adin Atashi,Pantea Bozorg Savodji,Aida Rezaei Nejad,Shahla Abolghasemi,Seyyed Mojtaba Ghorani,Atefe Kazemzade Bejandi,Maryam Bahrani,Mohammad Hoseinian,Homayoon Khaledian,Giti Dehghan Manshadi,Soheila Abolghasemi,Chiara Lazzeri

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0246314

Abstract

During the last months of the coronavirus pandemic, with all those public restrictions and health interventions, the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) appears now to have been raised in some countries around the world. Iran was one of those first countries facing the second wave of coronavirus, due to the lack of appropriate public restrictions because of economic problems the country is facing. The clinical and demographic characteristics of severe cases and non-severe cases of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in 192 patients in Tehran, Iran, between June 16 and July 11, 2020, were investigated. The patients were divided into severe cases (n = 82) and non-severe cases (n = 110). Demographic and clinical characteristics were compared between the two study clusters. The mean age was 54.6 ± 17.2 years, and the most common presenting symptom was persistent cough (81.8%) and fever (79.7%). The logistic regression model revealed that age, BMI, and affected family members were statistically associated with severity. Patients with complicated conditions of disorders faced more hospitalization days and medical care than the average statistical data. As the coronavirus spike in the case and death reports from June 2020, we observed the rise in the incidence of severe cases, where 42.7% (82/192) of cases have resulted in severe conditions. Our findings also suggested that the effect of IFB (Betamethasone) was more valid than the other alternative drugs such as LPV/r and IVIg.

Highlights

The sudden and unusual outbreak of coronavirus pandemic, which began in Wuhan, China, by late 2019 forced World Health Organization (WHO) to organize a Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) in order determine public health risk and raise the immediate international actions against the coronavirus pandemic [1, 2]
Recent daily reports from the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran had demonstrated that several provinces in Iran are experiencing a continues to rise in the case and death report, indicating the second wave of the COVID-19 epidemic, as of July 30, 2020, the number Iranian infected by coronavirus reached over 300,000 [3]
Iran was one of those first countries facing the second wave of coronavirus, due to the lack of appropriate public restrictions because of economic problems faced by unfair sanctions against the country [5, 6]

Summary

Introduction

The sudden and unusual outbreak of coronavirus pandemic, which began in Wuhan, China, by late 2019 forced World Health Organization (WHO) to organize a Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) in order determine public health risk and raise the immediate international actions against the coronavirus pandemic [1, 2]. Recent daily reports from the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran had demonstrated that several provinces in Iran are experiencing a continues to rise in the case and death report, indicating the second wave of the COVID-19 epidemic, as of July 30, 2020, the number Iranian infected by coronavirus reached over 300,000 [3]. With all those public restrictions and health interventions, the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) appears to have been raised in some countries around the world [4]. There are pieces of evidence for person-to-person transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 in spaces people share and gather (family members living in the same place, dormitories, etc.), hospitals and health care facilities, and public transport systems (bus, subway, etc.) [14, 15]

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