Abstract:
Since December 2019, when a cluster of atypical pneumonia
cases were identified in Wuhan, China a new disease has
spread across the world. COVID-19 has since become the
biggest pandemic in a century, touching lives in almost
every country in the world. At the outset of COVID-19, the
World Health Organization advised for testing to become a
priority so that patients with COVID-19 could be quickly
identified, isolated and treated to interrupt transmission of
disease. However, testing shortages have been an increasing
problem in low and middle income countries. Even when
tests are available, it has proved time-consuming. Therefore,
we propose a symptom-based tool to assist in the diagnosis of
COVID-19 management in low and middle income
Countries. It is based on the symptoms that have so far been
described in the literature and advises the frontline
healthcare worker on how to diagnose the likelihood of
having COVID-19 and separate the patient into Red (very
likely), Yellow (possible) and Green (unlikely) categories.
Keywords: COVID 19 diagnostic tool (CDT), Clinical tool
(CT), Low and middle income countries (LMIC).
(J Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2020; 38: 71-75)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3329/jbcps.v38i0.47342