A multi-centre, cross-sectional study on coronavirus disease 2019 in Bangladesh: clinical epidemiology and short-term outcomes in recovered individuals

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) rapidly became a global pandemic. This study aimed to investigate severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) -associated epidemiology and clinical outcomes in Bangladesh in order to understand the future course of the COVID-19 pandemic and develop approaches to prevention. A cross-sectional study based on retrospective interviews was conducted on 1021 individuals with RT-PCR-confirmed COVID-19 admitted in six different hospitals in Bangladesh and who recovered 4 weeks before the interview date. Of the 1021 patients, 111 (10.9%) were asymptomatic and the other 910 (89.1%) were symptomatic. Higher prevalence of COVID-19 was found in the male population (75%), in cohorts with B-positive blood group (36.3%) and in the 31-40 years age group. Common symptoms observed in our study participants were fever (72.4%), cough (55.9%), loss of taste (40.7%) and body ache (40%); whereas among the biochemical parameters, neutrophil count (46.4%), D-dimer (46.1%) and ferritin (37.9%) levels were elevated. Among the recovered individuals, short-term outcomes including pains and aches (31.8%), weakened attention span (24.4%) and anxiety or depression (23.1%) were also significantly prevalent in the symptomatic cases with comorbidities. Our study showed that in Bangladesh, adult males aged between 31 and 40 years were more vulnerable to developing COVID-19. It also indicated a rising trend of asymptomatic cases as the pandemic progressed. As a consequence, deployment of interventions to curb further spread of community infection is necessary to avoid grave outcomes of COVID-19 in Bangladesh.

Keywords: Asymptomatic; Bangladesh; comorbidities; coronavirus disease 2019; epidemiology; post-coronavirus disease 2019 complications.

Fig. 1

Frequency of symptomatic and asymptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 patients at various time-points.

Fig. 2

Biochemical parameters and medication history of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. (a) Various biochemical measurements of asymptomatic patients during onset of COVID-19. Normal reference values are: D-dimer <0.5 μg/mL; Ferritin male 18–370 ng/mL, female 9–120 ng/mL; serum creatinine male 0.4–1.4 mg/dL, female 0.3–1.1 mg/dL; C-reactive protein (CRP) <5 mg/L; troponin <0.30 ng/mL; uric acid male 3.4–7 mg/dL, female 2.4–6 mg/dL; erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) male <22 mm/h, female <29 mm/h; alanine transaminase (SGPT) male: 15–65 U/L, female 15–60 U/L; white blood cell count (WBC) 4 × 10⁹–11 × 10⁹/L; neutrophils 40%–75%; lymphocytes 20%–45%. (b) Various biochemical measurements of symptomatic patients during onset of COVID-19. (c) Medication history of the patients during the tenure of COVID-19 persistence for cases.