Epidemiology Clinical Profile and Outcome of Patients with COVED-19 Admitted in a Tertiary Health Care Hospital

Abstract

The knowledge of epidemiology and clinical profile is essential to understand the severity of the disease and to come up with timely intervention and proper treatment to reduce the morbidity and mortality caused by it. Severe Acute Respiratory SyndromeCoronavirus2 (SARS-CoV-2) the cause of Novel Coronavirus caused an outbreak in December 2019 in China, Wuhan. COVID-19 was declared to be a global pandemic on 11 March 2020 and it was found to cause pneumonia. This is a retrospective study done by reviewing the medical records of patients admitted to the COVID ward of a tertiary health care hospital in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. This study is focused on the epidemiology, clinical features and outcome of the patients. Patients were admitted based on RT-PCR results, patients aged between 0-17 whose RT-PCR for COVID-19 was positive were included in this study. Furthermore the disease severity, co-morbidities and treatment have also been analysed in this study. Out of 68 children tested 50 of them were positive for COVID-19, whose extensive histories regarding various details were recorded. Among various age groups, the most affected age group was found to be between 5-10 years and between 1-5 years. There was found to be male predominance in our study. Most of the patients were from the urban area and were from lower socioeconomic status. The mode of transmission in the paediatric age group was straightforward, the disease was contracted from a family member or from travelling to an endemic area. Mild symptoms were predominantly noticed in these children. Fever and sore throat were the chief complaints of most patients. Children with co-morbidities such as asthma, obesity etc… was given special attention as these conditions might increase the risk of severity of the disease. All the children admitted were given symptomatic treatment and a repeat RT-PCR test was taken before being discharged. The conducted study demonstrates that disease severity was mild in children than in adults. Further studies are required to understand the clinical course and early and late complications in children.