The research was carried out by Nishtar Hospital Multan, to evaluate the
prevalence of covid-19 among different genders and age groups.
It also differentiates patients on basis of Signs and Symptoms, family
history, the way patient was diagnosed, history of any chronic disease,
hospitalization, admission, morbidity and mortality in covid patient .
As regards gender, In week of April 2020, the UK intensive care and
National Audit research center (ICNAR) published a report on 2249
patients admitted to intensive care . Data showed men with covid 19 were
more than women ( 53.2% vs 37.5 % ) , mechanical ventilation (73%vs
27% ) , Respiratory support (71% vs 29 % ) which is in accordance
with our results which showed covid-19 came out to be more prevalent
among males (51.4%) as compared to females (48.6%). The reason for
this is not yet completely understood, however it is generally seen
that, women are less vulnerable to various viral infection e.g.
Coxsackie viruses virus B, SARS etc.
This may be due to various factors including the presence of several
immune related genes of X chromosomes and there is evidence of greater
reactivation of these genes in immune cells from women than men,
influence of steroid hormones on immunity etc.
As regards the age, a study examining 133 COVID-19 patients in Wuhan
China, reported a similar male predominance of covid 19 in persons aged
above 65 years (58% male vs. 42% female). In our study Covid-19
prevalence above 65 years was 2.7% in both males and females.
The various symptoms associated with covid-19 are fever, cough,
shortness of breath, flue like symptoms, body aches and anosmia etc.
ISARIC multinational study shows
Male Female
Fever 71% 66%
Cough 70% 66%
Shortness of breath 67% vs 64% while nausea and vomiting more common
in female than male ( 23 %vs 16 % ). Our study shows :
-Fever. (Male 19.5% Female 21.9%)
-Tiredness ( Male 15.6% Female 9.5%)
-Dry cough (Male 6.4% Female 10.9%)
Fever a common symptom of COVID is defined by The American College of
Critical Care Medicine and Infectious Disease Society as
“Core body temperature greater or equal to 38.3 °C . NICE considers an
infant or child has fever if their temperature is 38 °C or higher
.Reports suggest that fever is most common after five days of exposure
on average.
The next consideration was to see that how a COVID-19 affected person
was diagnosed. A study showed that 72% of COVID-19 admissions were
males versus 28% of those were females based on clinical evaluation.
According to the data collected by our colleagues, the maximum number of
patients were diagnosed on the basis of clinical evaluation(males 55.8%
_ females 57.5%) , followed by routine surveillance (22.1%
males_26% females) , contact tracing(18.2% males_9.5% females) ,
and others(males 3.8%_females 6.8%).
The history of these patients was also evaluated to see that how did
they contract this virus Clinical and demographic features of COVID-19
patients in Shiraz, South of Iran showed history of contact with
infected cases(16.8%) and history of travelling (26.5%)in males and
females. According to our research among males, mass gathering was the
major factor (29.8%)while in case of females it was contact with covid
patients (35.6%).14.2%males and 12.3%females also had a traveling
history. There were 40%males and 27.4%females that did not have any
such history which would give a clue as to how did they contract the
virus.
Chronicity and comorbidity influences the risk of COVID-19 infection and
the course of the disease. It is a well-known fact that the patients
suffering from any chronic disease become immuno-compromised and this
adversely affects the ability of their immune system to cope up with any
type of infections. According to a study conducted on COVID-19; the most
frequent association was with hypertension (19.5%), diabetes ( 14.2%),
cardiovascular diseases (14.2%) and asthma(6.2%). Our collected data
suggests that COVID-19 patients suffering from chronic diseases like
diabetes(16.9% males and 5.5% females) , hypertension(6.5%males and
10.9%females) , cardiac diseases(6.5% males and 2.7% females) and
asthma(6.5% males and 2.5% females) are having very severe and fatal
symptoms of COVID-19 infection.
We also assessed the hospitalization time and ICU admissions in COVID-19
positive patients. A research conducted by Shiraz University showed
hospitalization (25.7%) and ICU admissions (9.7%) in male and female
covid 19 patients. Male to female ratios of our Results showed that more
females were admitted to the ICU i.e. 19.2% as compared to males 15.5%
and hospitalization rate of patients was 31.16% in males and 27.3% in
females
The last but not the least is the outcome of the research. In the first
week of April 2020, the UK Intensive Care and National Audit Research
Centre (ICNARC) published a report on the first 2,249 patients admitted
to intensive care in the UK with COVID19. It showed that men with
COVID-19 were more likely to die than women (53.2% v. 37.5%) whereas
in our study it showed that although COVID-19 had higher prevalence rate
among men but mortality rate was pretty more in females i.e. 16.4% as
compared to males 10.4%
On the whole, it is novel virus and there is a need to carry out more
studies on it in order to develop a good treatment plan or a vaccine and
to prevent the people from getting infected with this fatal virus.