Clinico-epidemiological characteristics of asymptomatic and symptomatic COVID-19-positive patients in Bangladesh

  1. Mohammad Jahid Hasan
  2. Sayeda Mukta Chowdhury
  3. Md. Abdullah Saeed Khan
  4. Monjur Rahaman
  5. Jannatul Fardous
  6. Tanjir Adit
  7. Mustafizur Rahman
  8. Md. Tarek Hossain
  9. Shakila Yesmin
  10. Enayetur Raheem
  11. Mohammad Robed Amin

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Abstract

Background

As of August 15, 2020, Bangladesh lost 3591 lives since the first Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) case announced on March 8. The objective of the study was to report the clinical manifestation of both symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19-positive patients.

Methods

A online-based cross-sectional survey was conducted for initial recruitment of participants with subsequent telephone interview by the three trained physicians in 237 adults with confirmed COVID-19 infection in Bangladesh. The study period was between 27 April to 26 th May, 2020. Consent was ensured before commencing the interview. Collected data were entered in a predesigned case report form and subsequently analyzed by SPSS 20.

Results

The mean age at presentation was 41.59±13.73 (SD) years and most of the cases were male (73%). A total of 90.29% of patients reside in urban areas. Among the positive cases, 13.1% (n = 31) were asymptomatic. Asymptomatic cases were significantly more common in households with 2 to 4 members (p = .008). Both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients shared similar ages of presentation (p = 0.23), gender differences (p = 0.30), and comorbidities (p = 0.11). Only 5.3% of patients received ICU care during their treatment. The most frequent presentation was fever (88.3%), followed by cough (69.9%), chest pain (34.5%), body ache (31.1%), and sore throat (30.1%). Thirty-nine percent (n = 92) of the patients had comorbidities, with diabetes and hypertension being the most frequently observed.

Conclusion

There has been an upsurge in COVID-19 cases in Bangladesh. Patients were mostly middle-aged and male. Typical presentations were fever and cough. Maintenance of social distancing and increased testing are required to meet the current public health challenge.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.18.20177089: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: The form was set so that if any person clicked the link to participate and did not agree with the informed consent statements, they could not proceed to the next sections of the questionnaire.
    IACUC: Ethics statement: Before the commencement of the study, formal ethical approval was obtained from the Ethical Review Committee (ERC) of the Biomedical Research Foundation (BRF), Bangladesh (Memo no: BRF/ERB/2020/003).
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    This study has several limitations. There was an oversampling of a particular network of peers (e.g., socially engaged), leading to selection bias. As a result, the conclusion is less generalizable to the entire population, particularly for less educated people. More detailed patient information, particularly clinical outcomes and detailed investigations, was unavailable. The scope of confirmation of the data regarding comorbid conditions was minimal. Therefore, our findings on the symptoms of individuals with COVID-19 should be considered with caution.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.08.18.20177089v1 on medRxiv