Epidemiology of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVD-19) outbreak cases in Oyo State South West Nigeria, March-April 2020

Abstract

Introduction On March 17th, 2020, Oyo State recorded her first case of COVID-19 through a United Kingdom returnee. Oyo State Ministry of Health with the support of technical and development partners responded quickly and effectively to contain the outbreak. The outbreak was characterized by place, person and time. Methods Field investigations were conducted and contact tracing and follow up done, all confirmed cases were identified, line-listed and analyzed using Epi-info version 7. Results A total of 34 confirmed cases were identified all within the capital city of Oyo State and two transferred from other states. The mean age was 49.1 ± 2.0 years with over 40% within the age group 50-59 years. There were 11(35.5%) health care workers infection. The case-fatality was 6.5%. The epidemic curve initially shows a typical propagated pattern, followed by a point source; though atypical. Conclusion Outbreak of COVID-19 was confirmed in Oyo State. Field investigation provided information on the characteristics of persons, time and place. Intensified surveillance activities such as contact tracing and follow- up, drive through testing and active case search were useful in early case detection and control of the outbreak.

Outcome of Epidemiological Investigation of COVID-19 Outbreak in a South West State of Nigeria, March to August 2020

“…The epidemic curve of the outbreak suggests a propagated pattern of transmission of the disease. This is consistent with previous COVID-19 outbreak reports and studies in other regions of Nigeria NCDC [23], Usman et al, [3], Elimian et.al., [18] and in China by Chen et al, [24]. The pattern of the outbreak is suggestive of person-to-person transmission which further explains the findings in this investigation that most of the cases (88.8%) occurred in urban settings where crowded conditions, clustered settlement pattern of the houses and large-scale human interactions due to daily commercial activities could have facilitated the spread of the outbreak [25] [26].…”

“…The finding in this investigation that a high proportion of the confirmed COVID-19 cases were males and between the age group of 20 to 59 years is consistent with previous studies in Oyo State, Nigeria [3] and Wuhan, China [17].…”

“…Also, Bwire [19], De La Vega et al, [20] and Isere et al, [11] in their studies reported poor compliance and attitude towards COVID-19 preventive measures and protocol such as frequent hand washing, wearing of face mask, and stay at home orders among men compare to women. Similarly, our investigation shows a high proportion of infection among healthcare workers which is consistent with a previous investigation by Usman et.al., [3]. This might be attributed to poor compliance to COVID-19 IPC protocol by health care workers due to key issues such as knowledge gaps and access to PPEs in the health care settings.…”

“…The SARS-CoV2 belongs to a family of viruses that cause illness with various symptoms such as pneumonia, fever, breathing difficulty and lung infections [2]. The virus is one of the main pathogens of respiratory infection alongside others such as SARSCoV and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERSCoV) that caused severe respiratory syndrome in humans [3]. The term 2019 novel coronavirus was first used to refer to the virus that affected the lower respiratory tract of patients with pneumonia in a local Huanan South China Seafood market in Wuhan City, China on 29 December 2019 [4] [5].…”

Clinical Symptoms and Haematological Characteristics among Male and Female COVID-19 Patients in Rivers State: A Single-center Case Reviews

“…A number of studies have reported that sex differences exists in the clinical symptoms and laboratory parameters of COVID-19 patients and obvious abnormalities have been seen among males compared to females [19][20][21]. Researchers have also observed a higher mortality from corona virus disease among males compared to females [22].…”