Characteristics and outcomes of patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 during the first wave in Senegal

Abstract

BackgroundFew studies have focused on the effects of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on African populations. During the first wave (May 1, 2020 to July 31, 2020), all patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in the Thiès medical region of Senegal were isolated in two types of treatment centers of epidemics (TCEs): hospitals (hTCEs) or out-of-hospital TCE (oTCEs). We have described the demographic characteristics and outcomes of patients in TCEs.MethodsResultsA total 600 cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed. The median age of the patients was 34.0 years; 357 (59.5%) were men and 243 (40.5%) were women. The incidence of reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)–positive findings of COVID-19 was 12 per 100,000 inhabitants per month. Forty-six (7.7%) patients with severe or critical disease and 99 (16.5%) patients with high-risk conditions and nonsevere disease were hospitalized in hTCEs; 455 (75.8%) patients were quarantined in the oTCEs. In hTCEs, the severely ill patients had a median age of 68 (range, 52–88) years and were older than both the less ill patients in the hTCEs (median age, 45 years; range, 7–78 years; p < 0.0001) and the patients in oTCEs (median age, 30 years; range, 1–86 years; p < 0.0001). Nine patients (7 men, 2 women) died (median age, 73 years; range, 52–88 years); thus the total case fatality rate was 1.5%. Of the patients quarantined in the oTCEs, 340 (74.7%) had no symptoms, and 115 (25.3%) had mild or moderate symptoms; only 2 (0.4%) developed severe disease during the follow-up period. ConclusionIn this retrospective cohort, patients were young (median age, 34.0 years) and mostly asymptomatic (67.8%); the overall fatality rate was low at 1.5%.