Clinical Presentations and Characteristics of Confirmed Covid-19 Patients over a 1-Year Period in a Private Health Facility in Ilorin, North-Central Nigeria

Abstract

The first case of COVID-19 in Nigeria was confirmed on February 27, 2020.  Since then, many studies from government designated isolation centers have described the characteristics of patients with Covid-19. Even though COVID-19 testing and management are exclusively carried out at the NCDC-approved centers, majority of patients are referred from primary care facilities, both public and private owned. To our knowledge, there has been no studies regarding Covid-19 disease among the patients served by these centers. Our aim is to describe the clinical characteristics and outcome of COVID-19 cases seen at Olanrewaju Hospital, Ilorin, North Central Nigeria. This is a descriptive retrospective study of patients with confirmed COVID-19 seen over a one-year period. Records of all patients that tested positive using the real-time reverse-transcriptase-polymerase-chain-reaction (RT-PCR) were retrieved to extract relevant information. Data was analyzed using Epi Info 7.48 patients were analyzed. The mean age (standard deviation) was 50.0 years (17.89). Male sex predominates (58.3% vs 41.7%). Majority of patients were symptomatic (93.7%). Fever was most common presentation (75.6%). Shortness of breath was experienced by 11 patients (24.4%). Co-morbidities were found among 75% of the patients with hypertension being the commonest (45.9%). There were 6 deaths (12.5%), 5 of which occurred in the older age patients. Case fatality rate was significantly higher during the first wave than during the second wave 40% vs 5.6%, p < 0.05. The male gender, co-morbidities and older age groups are particularly prone to severe covid-19 infection with poorer outcome.