Demographic and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients in the least developed province Balochistan of Pakistan – an observational descriptive study 10.55131/jphd/2023/210209
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This study was designed to determine the epidemiological and clinical attributes of COVID-19 patients in the least developed province of Balochistan, Pakistan. The information was obtained from the daily situation report by the Health Department, Government of Balochistan, Pakistan. We investigated the reports of 4177 patients confirmed by RT-PCR tests. Demographic, epidemiological and risk factors data along with comorbidities and clinical signs were recorded. Out of 4500 suspected cases, 4177 cases were directed for the confirmation of COVID-19. A sum of 2177 patients was confirmed to have COVID-19 and 2000 individuals tested negative for the illness. Out of 4177 patients, 2000 patients recovered but 177 patients died because of COVID-19. In current statistics, most males were affected by COVID-19 as 3243 (77.69%) were males and 934 (22.36%) were females. A total of 90.81% of individuals had fever, 88.97% had a cough, 81% had body throbs, and 89.66% had a sore throat. Shortness of breath was observed in 97.06% and 44.09 % had comorbidity. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the outcome of patients was associated with gender and symptoms. The district Quetta had the maximum number of COVID-19 cases and deaths. COVID-19 cases and case casualty proportion are low in Balochistan. Whether this is because of failure to do more tests is still to be discovered. Males and individuals of older age are more impacted, and fatalities were higher in cases with co-morbid conditions. Balochistan has a feeble medical care framework and many asymptomatic cases, and needs more rigid screening activities.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
References
Meo SA, Abukhalaf AA, Alomar AA, AlMutairi FJ, Usmani AM, Klonoff DC. Impact of lockdown on COVID-19 prevalence and mortality during 2020 pandemic: observational analysis of 27 countries. Eur J Med Res. 2020; 25(1):56. doi: 10.1186/s40001-020-00456-9.
Guo H, Zhou Y, Liu X, Tan J. The impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the utilization of emergency dental services. J Dent Sci. 2020;15(4):564-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jds.2020.02.002.
Wong GL, Wong VW, Thompson A, Jia J, Hou J, Lesmana CRA, et al. Management of patients with liver derangement during the COVID-19 pandemic: an Asia-Pacific position statement. Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2020;5(8):776-87. doi: 10.1016/S2468-1253(20)30190-4.
Bikdeli B, Madhavan MV, Jimenez D, Chuich T, Dreyfus I, Driggin E, et al. COVID-19 and Thrombotic or Thromboembolic Disease: Implications for Prevention, Antithrombotic Therapy, and Follow-Up: JACC State-of-the-Art Review. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2020;75(23):2950-73. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2020.04.031.
Wang W, Tang J, Wei F. Updated understanding of the outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Wuhan, China. J Med Virol. 2020;92(4):441-7. doi: 10.1002/ jmv.25689.
Zhou P, Yang XL, Wang XG, Hu B, Zhang L, Zhang W, et al. A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin. Nature. 2020;579(7798):270-3. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2012-7.
World Health Organization. COVID-19 weekly epidemiological update [Internet]. 2022 [cited 2022 Sept 23]. Available from : https://apps.who.int/ iris/handle/10665/363125
Zhang W, Du RH, Li B, Zheng XS, Yang XL, Hu B, et al. Molecular and serological investigation of 2019-nCoV infected patients: implication of multiple shedding routes. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2020;9(1):386-9. doi: 10.1080/22221751.2020.1729071.
Zhang J, Xie B, Hashimoto K. Current status of potential therapeutic candidates for the COVID-19 crisis. Brain Behav Immun. 2020;87:59-73. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2020.04.046.
World Health Organization. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): situation report, 73 [Internet]. 2020 [cited 2022 Aug 30]. Available from : https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/331686
World Health Organization. Coronavirus disease ( COVID-19): situation report, 206 [Internet]. 2020 [cited 2022 Aug 10.]. Available from: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/333839
Jamil S, Appiah-Adjei G. Battling with infodemic and disinfodemic: the quandary of journalists to report on COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan. Media Asia. 2020;47(3-4):88-109.
Waris A, Atta UK, Ali M, Asmat A, Baset A. COVID-19 outbreak: current scenario of Pakistan. New Microbes New Infect. 2020;35:100681. doi: 10.1016/j.nmni.2020.100681.
Khalid A, Ali S. COVID-19 and its Challenges for the Healthcare System in Pakistan. Asian Bioeth Rev. 2020;12(4):551-64. doi: 10.1007/ s41649-020-00139-x.
Temesgen Abebe H, Mitiku Ashebir M, Mohamedniguss Ebrahim M, Berhe Zelelow Y, Mulugeta Bezabih A, Redae Tefere G, et al. Epidemiological and Clinical Characteristics of COVID-19 Patients in Northern Ethiopia: A Retrospective Cohort Study. Infect Drug Resist. 2022;15:3579-88. doi: 10.2147/IDR.S345936. eCollection 2022.
Jin JM, Bai P, He W, Wu F, Liu XF, Han DM, et al. Gender Differences in Patients With COVID-19: Focus on Severity and Mortality. Front Public Health. 2020;8:152. doi: 10.3389/ fpubh.2020.00152.
Ashraf A, Liaquat A, Shabbir S, Bokhari SA, Tariq Z, Furrukh Z, et al. High level of lactate dehydrogenase and ischaemia-reperfusion injury regulate the multiple organ dysfunction in patients with COVID-19. Postgrad Med J. 2022. doi: 10.1136/postgradmedj-2022-141573.
Remuzzi A, Remuzzi G. COVID-19 and Italy: what next? Lancet. 2020;395(10231):1225-8. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30627-9.
Shabbir S, Hafeez A, Rafiq MA, Khan MJ. Estrogen shields women from COVID-19 complications by reducing ER stress. Med Hypotheses. 2020;143:110148. doi: 10.1016/ j.mehy.2020.110148.
Dowd JB, Andriano L, Brazel DM, Rotondi V, Block P, Ding X, et al. Demographic science aids in understanding the spread and fatality rates of COVID-19. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020;117(18):9696-8. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2004911117.
Shabbir S, Raza MH, Arshad M, Khan MJ. The interplay between the immune system and SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19 patients. Arch Virol. 2021;166(8):2109-17. doi: 10.1007/ s00705-021-05091-1.
Omer S, Ali S, Babar ZUD. Preventive measures and management of COVID-19 in pregnancy. Drugs Ther Perspect. 2020;36(6):246-9. doi: 10.1007/s40267-020-00725-x.
Lauer SA, Grantz KH, Bi Q, Jones FK, Zheng Q, Meredith HR, et al. The Incubation Period of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) From Publicly Reported Confirmed Cases: Estimation and Application. Ann Intern Med. 2020;172(9):577-82. doi: 10.7326/M20-0504.
Onder G, Rezza G, Brusaferro S. Case-Fatality Rate and Characteristics of Patients Dying in Relation to COVID-19 in Italy. JAMA. 2020;323(18):1775-6. doi: 10.1001/jama.2020.4683.
Bilinski A, Mostashari F, Salomon JA. Modeling Contact Tracing Strategies for COVID-19 in the Context of Relaxed Physical Distancing Measures. JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(8): e2019217. doi: 10.1001/ jamanetworkopen.2020.19217.
Badshah SL, Ullah A, Badshah SH, Ahmad I. Spread of Novel coronavirus by returning pilgrims from Iran to Pakistan. J Travel Med. 2020;27(3). doi: 10.1093/jtm/taaa044.
Badini AM, Badini A, Mengal NM, Nanji K. Characteristics of Patients Presenting with COVID-19 from Balochistan Province and Lessons Learnt. J Coll Physicians Surg Pak. 2021;31(7):S104-s8. doi: 10.29271/ jcpsp.2021.Supp2.S104.