Covid-19 in Chile. The experience of a Regional reference Center. Preliminary report

Abstract

During the first pandemic wave Covid-19 reached Latin America cities. Aim: To report clinical features and outcomes associated to Covid-19 in a group of patients admitted during the first wave in a regional reference Center in southern Chile designated to severe and critical cases. Methods: Cases were identified by a compatible clinical picture associated to positive RT-PCR or serological testing. A standard protocol was applied. Results: 21 adult patients (20 diagnosed by PCR, one by serology) were admitted between epidemiological weeks 13 to 20, involving 8.8% of total regional cases. Hospitalization occurred at a median of 11 days after symptoms onset. Patients ≥60 years old predominated (57.1%). Hypertension (61.9%), obesity (57.1%) and diabetes mellitus 2 (38.1%) were prevalent but 19% had no comorbid conditions nor were elderly. Two cases involved second-trimester pregnant women. Positive IgM or IgM/IgG results obtained by rapid serological testing were limited (19% at 1st week; 42.9% at 2nd week). Nine patients (42.9%, critical group) were transferred to ICU and connected to mechanical ventilation due to respiratory failure. By univariate analysis admission to ICU was significantly associated to tachypnea and higher plasmatic LDH values. One pregnant woman required urgent cesarean section given birth to a premature neonate without vertical transmission. Two patients died (in-hospital mortality 9.5%) and length of stay was equal or higher than 14 days in 57.9% of patients. Conclusion: In our regional Center, Covid 19 was associated to known risk factors, had a prolonged stay and in-hospital mortality. Tachypnea ≥30/min is predictive of transfer to ICU.

Cost of Illness of COVID-19 and Its Consequences on Health and Economic System

“…Corona virus disease or simply COVID-19 is an infectious disease which was firstly found as an epidemic on December 31, 2019, in Wuhan, China. 1 , 2 This disease quickly spread across the world as the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020, declared it as a pandemic. 3 The patients catching this virus manifest a various spectrum of symptoms from a mild fever to acute respiratory failure, also thromboembolic diseases, and dysfunction or failure of several organs.…”

Clinical presentation and outcomes of the first patients with COVID-19 in Argentina: Results of 207079 cases from a national database

“…Most of the available evidence on COVID-19 characteristics and clinical features has been based on studies of hospitalized patients, with only a few reports based on population wide datasets [10][11][12][13]. Furthermore, there is only a paucity of studies reporting the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients in Latin America [11,[14][15][16]. The COVID-19 pandemic represents a significant challenge particularly in low to middle-income countries (LMIC) of the region, as interventions such as social distancing are challenging if not virtually impossible to implement in large overcrowded urban areas, and issues such as concurrent dengue outbreaks and limited testing capacity may further impede efforts to stop the spread [17].…”

Performance estimation of two in-house ELISA assays for COVID-19 surveillance through the combined detection of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgA, IgM, and IgG immunoglobulin isotypes

“…In the present study, a total of 94 individuals were enrolled, where 50 corresponded to confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection (24 women and 26 men), and 44 corresponded to sera collected between June and July 2019, thus regarded as free of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies sera (pre-pandemic samples). All 50 confirmed cases corresponded to unvaccinated patients admitted to the Hospital Base de Valdivia (HBV), Valdivia, southern Chile, from April to November 2020, and they were confirmed by a standard RT-qPCR assay using nasopharyngeal swab samples, as previously described [ 28 ]. At the time of sera collection at the HBV, all were symptomatic cases, presenting different degrees of COVID-19 complications, from very mild to severe, which eventually required hospitalization at the HBV.…”