Abstract:
Introduction: Since the first detection of corona virus disease
(COVID-19) cases in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 8 March, 2020,
numbers are rising alarmingly. Clinical data on COVID-19
in Bangladesh is lacking. We report early findings on
demographic profile, clinical presentations and short-term
clinical outcomes of confirmed COVID-19 patients admitted
in a large teaching hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh with
preliminary analyses of their association with mortality.
Materials and Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional
study, we included reverse transcription polymerase chain
reaction (RT-PCR) confirmed COVID-19 patients aged ≥ 15
years, who were admitted in Dhaka Medical College Hospital
(DMCH) between May 2 and 15, 2020, the first two weeks
when DMCH started admitting COVID-19 patients. Data
were collected between May 25 and 29, 2020 from patients or
their attendants through telephone interview by a structured
questionnaire, after having appropriate consent, irrespective
of outcome. One hundred and eight consecutive patients
met inclusion criteria through convenient sampling from
ward registrar, 102 patients could be reached over phone and
data from two patients were discarded in the data cleaning
process. The statistical analysis was done by the Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0.
Results: Among the total participants (n=100), mean age was
41.7±16.3 years, 63% were male and 60% patients had positive
contact history. Appearance of symptom to hospital admission
time was a median of 6 days (range 1 to 21 days) and mean
hospital stay was 7.77 ± 5.62 days. Predominant presenting
symptoms were fever (69%), cough (54%), breathlessness
(41%), fatigue (40%), anorexia (26%) and diarrhea (19%).
Hypertension (21%), diabetes mellitus (16%), heart diseases
including ischemic heart disease (IHD) (8%) and renal
diseases including chronic kidney disease (CKD) (8%) were
frequent comorbidities. Ten out of hundred patients died. Older
age (p= 0.001), male sex (p= 0.007), smoking (p= 0.001),
breathlessness (p=0.001) and presence of comorbidities (p= <
0.05) were significantly associated with mortality.
Conclusion: Frequent positive contact history and significant
association of breathlessness, smoking and comorbidities with
mortality in our study reinforces that abiding by the prevention
and containment process, smoking cessation, ensuring proper
oxygen therapy and addressing comorbidities adequately are
very important measures to mitigate COVID-19 in Bangladesh
like the rest of the world.
Key words: COVID-19, clinical feature, comorbidity, risk factor
(J Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2020; 38: 29-36)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3329/jbcps.v38i0.47445