Incidence of Covid-19 and Associated Risk Factors in Algeria

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 disease was officially declared as a pandemic by the WHO in January 2020, representing a real international health challenge. This coronavirus has caused the largest pandemic since the Spanish flu of 1918. The present study aims to specify the impact of some factors: sex, age and chronic diseases in an Algerian population (region of chlef) of 1100 confirmed covid-19 positive patients. The results obtained showed a significant effect of patients' age (p = 0.02) and male gender (p < 0.001) on the virus contamination and on the death rate. High blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases represented the most significant types of comorbidities (p<0.001) in SARS-Cov-2 infection. However, a non-significant effect (p>0.05) of other associated comorbidities such as: kidney disease, cancer, chronic inflammatory bowel disease, liver disease and respiratory disease was revealed. It would be interesting later to conduct this study on a larger sample, while being interested in following the evolution of the different comorbidities after the infection by the virus, which will allow health professionals to acquire better knowledge on the evolution of post-Covid chronic pathologies that could make patients more vulnerable to the development of more severe forms of their comorbidities, and in the purpose to optimize their future management.