Clinical and epidemiological characteristics and outcomes of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in Douala, Cameroon

Abstract

Introduction the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a disease that originated from Wuhan in December 2019. It rapidly spread across the globe causing high mortality especially among the elderly. Africa though not spared has limited studies regarding its effects on its population. We therefore sought to describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 in Douala, Cameroon. Methods we conducted a single-centre, retrospective, and observational study by reviewing records of patients managed for COVID-19 between the 8 th March 2020 and 31 st , May 2020. Cases were confirmed by real-time reverse transcriptase - polymerase chain reaction and were analysed for epidemiological, demographic, clinical, and radiological features. Outcomes were either clinical improvement by Day-28 or in-hospital mortality. Results we analyzed 282 case files, 192 were males (M: F=2: 1). The mean age was 52 (+/- 15) years. Hypertension and diabetes accounted for 75% of the chronic medical conditions identified. Main presenting complaints were dyspnea, cough, asthenia, and fever (55-60%). Radiographic analysis showed a ground-glass appearance in 85% of cases. Chloroquine/Hydroxychloroquine was the most (91.8%) frequently used drug in management protocols, 35% needed oxygen supplementation while 6 patients were intubated. Severe pneumonia (11.3%) was the commonest complication. They were 91 admissions in the intensive care unit. The average length of hospital stay was 10 (+/- 5) days. The mortality rate was 32%. Conclusion our findings are concordant with universally reported data of COVID-19 hospitalised patients. These parameters are essential in designing effective prevention and control programs aimed at reducing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic particularly in countries with limited resources.

Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of Patients Hospitalized with COVID-19 at Case Hospital, Uganda

“…A higher proportion of patients presenting to MNRH CTU had severe/critical illness compared to those in our setting (>80% versus 52%), and challenges related to late presentation and shortage of oxygen and healthcare workers were also reported to have contributed to the high mortality in public health facilities across Uganda. Mortality reported in our study is also much lower than the 32% reported in Cameroon [ 25 ], and 48·2% in a cohort study of over 3,000 critically ill patients with COVID-19 pneumonia enrolled in 64 hospitals in ten African countries [ 26 ]. In the latter study, in addition to the traditional risk factors for adverse COVID-19 outcome, persons living with HIV/AIDS and those who experienced delayed access to high-care units and ICU had higher mortality rates.…”

Clinical profile and factors associated with COVID-19 in Yaounde, Cameroon: A prospective cohort study

“…For these reasons, we expected all these factors to contribute to an escalation of the transmission of COVID-19 in Cameroon. Unfortunately, less than 3.9% of scientific reports on COVID-19 have originated from Africa [8] and very few from Cameroon [9]. To fill this gap, the study sought to describe clinical features of COVID-19 infection and risk factors for patients admitted in the Djoungolo Hospital COVID-19 treatment centre in Cameroon.…”

COVID-19 and Comorbidities in Douala, Cameroon

“…Most of the patients had at least two comorbidities which were represented by hypertension, diabetes and obesity. In Douala, Mekolo et al and Mbarga et al found high prevalence of hypertension and diabetes in patients hospitalized and suspected for COVID-19 in Douala and Yaoundé towns, respectively[8,9]. Similarly, obesity was reported in > 20% of…”

“…Even though reports point out the increasing burden of the above mentioned comorbidities in sSA countries, very few studies on COVID-19, associated factors, and the role of these comorbidities have been conducted in the continent, especially in Cameroon [8][9][10][11]. Diabetes and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection are increasingly documented at significant rates in African populations, and few studies outlined increased risk of COVID-19 related complications and death in African patients suffering from diabetes and chronic HBV infection [9,12,13].…”