Clinical Characteristics of Noncritical Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Lessons from Bangladesh

  1. Md Shahed Morshed
  2. Abdullah Al Mosabbir
  3. Prodipta Chowdhury
  4. Sheikh M Ashadullah
  5. Mohammad Sorowar Hossain

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Abstract

The scientific literatures on clinical manifestations of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients from South Asian countries including Bangladesh are limited. Documentation of clinical spectrum from various geographic locations is vital for future scientific studies and clinical management. This study is aimed to report the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of noncritical patients with COVID-19 in Bangladesh. We conducted a cross-sectional study at three dedicated COVID-19 hospitals of Bangladesh. The severity of the COVID-19 cases was assessed based on the WHO interim guidance. Data were collected only from non-critical COVID-19 patients as critical patients required immediate management. A total of 103 real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) confirmed noncritical COVID- 19 patients were included. Most of the patients (71.8%) were male. Mild, moderate and severe illness were assessed in 74.76%, 9.71% and 15.53% of patients respectively. Nearly 52.4% patients had a co-morbidity, with hypertension being the most common (34%), followed by diabetes mellitus (21.4%) and ischemic heart disease (9.7%). Fever (78.6%), weakness (68%) and cough (44.7%) were the most common clinical manifestations. Other common symptoms included loss of appetite (37.9%), difficulty in breathing (37.9%), loss of taste or smell (35.0%), headache (32%) and body ache (32%). The median time from onset of the first symptom to attending hospitals was 7 days (interquartile range: 4 - 10). This study will help both the clinicians and epidemiologists to understand the magnitude and clinical spectrum of COVID-19 patients in South Asian perspective including Bangladesh. Bangladesh J Microbiol, Volume 37 Number 2 December 2020, pp 42-46

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    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.30.20165100: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: Verbal consent was taken from all participants.
    IRB: The institutional review board of Biomedical Research Foundation, Bangladesh approved the study protocol (Ref. 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
    Data were analysed by SPSS Statistics software 22.0 (Armonk, NY: IBM Corp).
    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:
    Our study has some limitations. First, the sample size of this study was small. Second, we could not include critical patients due to the requirement of emergency management. Therefore, our findings could not be generalized in the context of Bangladesh. Our study reports the presenting symptoms of SARS-COV-2 infections among the Bangladeshi population. Although there are certain similarities in the range of symptoms with the Chinese population, where the pandemic originated, there are some unique findings like the high prevalence of olfactory and gustatory dysfunctions. This study will help both the clinicians and epidemiologists to understand the magnitude and clinical spectrum of COVID-19 patients in Bangladesh.

    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

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.3329/bjm.v37i2.51209
  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.07.30.20165100 on medRxiv