An Overview of Preliminary COVID-19 Cases Admitted in Rawalpindi Institute of Urology & Transplantation Pakistan

To determine the source of infection, comorbidity and health outcome of COVID-19 patients admitted in Rawalpindi Institute of Urology & Transplantation (RIU & T) Pakistan...


Introduction
Corona virus disease is an infectious disease that is attributed to SARS-CoV-2 which belongs to corona virus family. This disease was declared as global health emergency by World Health Organization on 30 th January 2020 following confrontation of unprecedented challenges by the population of China [1]. This disease is directly transmitted through droplets and contact with infected persons while touching contaminated fomites facilitates its indirect spread [2]. COVID-19 cases are either found to be symptomatic or suffering from mild clinical symptoms [3]. However, some of them present with acute lung injury and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) that ultimately leads to respiratory failure and expiry [4]. Elderly population and individuals with co-morbidities like cardiovascular disorders and diabetes are highly vulnerable to corona virus disease with grave consequences [5]. People with clinical as well as sub-clinical corona virus infections are amenable to transmit disease to others, so the suspects should primarily be screened followed by hospitalization on disease confirmation [6].
COVID-19 sprouted from Wuhan (China), depicted exponential growth and crossed borders with marked emergence of cases in numerous countries [7]. COVID-19 pandemic appeared in Pakistan during February 2020 that was attributed to returners from Iran [8]. Till then emergence of SAR CoV-2 massively worldwide has Since detection of first COVID-19 case in Pakistan, diverse arms of federal, provincial and district governments have joined together to mitigate the disastrous effects of COVID-19 through lockdown for social distancing in addition to application of isolation of superspreaders and keeping suspects in quarantine [10] because of nonavailability of vaccine against SAR CoV-2 and lack of efficacious drugs [11]. Our health professionals being frontline fighters are also leading the battle against COVID-19 courageously despite of scarce resources [12]. Rooting out the clinical presentations in association with co-morbidities and transmissibility of corona virus infection among affected population will be very informative to cope up with this havoc timely and efficiently. The present research is therefore carried out to appraise the severity and health outcome  Total 106 cases were enrolled in this study through consecutive sampling. The data was gathered pertinent to their demographics, travel and contact history, clinical presentations and comorbidity after getting informed consent from hospital administration. The data was analyzed by using SPSS version 25.0.  Table 1. 477 was determined to be 11.5±1.32 days. Health outcome of our patients is depicted below in Figure 4. Health outcome of COVID-19 patients seemed to have significant association (P<0.01) with their co-morbidity as depicted below in Table 3.      Discussion COVID-19 pandemic has drastically affected the nations all over the world [13]. Coronavirus is known to enter the human body through respiratory tract or conjunctiva [14]. Because of varied differential diagnosis and contagiousness of disease, determining travel history and contact tracing of suspects is of paramount significance for real representation of this problem [15]. In current study, majority (19.8%) COVID-19 cases were in 21-30 years age group with males constituting highest frequency among them. Like our research, mainstream of South Korean population suffered from COVID-19 was comprised of 20-29 years age group with males constituting highest proportion of cases [16]. Contrary to this a research on Indian people revealed highest propensity of COVID-19 cases in 31-40 years age group [17]. On reviewing the COVID-19 cases reported from New York City of America, it became evident that males above 75 years old were more susceptible to coronavirus infection [18].

Results
Likewise, our results, international research are also revealing more susceptibility of males towards COVID-19 as compared to females. Researchers have observed sex differences in every tissue and organ system of human body pertinent to coronavirus infection [19]. More infection vulnerability of males as compared to females might be due to more outdoor chores of males. However, this gender discrimination with respect to coronavirus infection is still under discussion and many trials are still to be undertaken to reach the conclusion.
In current study, the duration between onset of symptoms patients had fever and 48.1% patients had cough followed by sore throat, headache, chills and diarrhea [20]. Another research by [21] revealed that fever, cough and myalgia are the commonest symptoms followed by abdominal pain, nausea and diarrhea [21].
This similarity in configuration of symptoms worldwide can be of great help in early detection and prompt treatment of cases.

Conclusion
COVID-19 cases in Pakistan predominantly attribute to contact with infected people. So preventive measures against corona virus infection should rigorously be adopted by our population to get rid of this havoc. Older males mainly suffering from hypertension should specifically be protected in this context.