Asymptomatic COVID Infections in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Determining the prevalence of asymptomatic carriers of an infectious agent plays a major role in the control of infections, especially
with regard to measures aimed at isolating individuals who can potentially transmit the infection to others while they are not showing symptoms of
the disease.

Aim: This study was aimed at determining the positivity rate of COVID-19 among patients who presented for testing; the proportion of asymptomatic cases among the patients who tested positive; and the factors associated with being symptomatic at diagnosis.

Materials and Methods: The data for the first 595 suspected cases and probable contacts who presented for reverse transcription‑polymerase chain reaction testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) in our center were assessed to determine their biodata, symptomatology, and the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 genes.

Results: Patients positive for SARS-CoV-2 made up 133/595 (22.4%) of the cohort. At presentation for testing, 97/133 (71.4%) of the positive patients had no symptoms fitting the case definition of COVID‑19. Of these, 28 (73.7%) were males and 10 (26.3%) were females, this was statistically significant. However, there was no statistically significant difference between the ages of the respondents who had symptoms and those who did not have symptoms.

Conclusion: A significant proportion of patients in our setting had asymptomatic infections, this stresses the need to test more and advocate compliance with all preventive measures including universal masking.