Lower mortality rate in health workers and their families infected with COVID-19 associated pneumonia in Quetta, Baluchistan

Abstract

Objectives: A bunch of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China, was caused by a novel beta-corona virus, (COVID-19) in December 2019 from where it spread rapidly across the globe. The aim of the study was to find out relevant reasons and offered suggestions to reduce the risk of infection and check clinical outcomes of the infected healthcare workers.
 Methods: This study was conducted in COVID-19 Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) laboratory, Bolan Medical Complex Hospital Quetta, Baluchistan from May to June 2020. Eight hundred (n=800) health workers and their families were included in this study. Data were obtained with standardized data collection forms shared by the WHO. Nasopharyngeal samples were collected following the WHO protocols. RNA was extracted and amplified using real time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Serum ferritin level, C-reactive protein, D-dimer and radiological results of the RT-PCR confirmed individuals were also recorded and analyzed.
 Results: Among (n=800) health workers and their families 457 (57.1%) were COVID-19 PCR negative, 332 (41.5%) positive and 11 (1.4%) individuals were PCR positive but asymptomatic carriers, 234 (29.5%) were male and 103 (12.9%) were female. Mortality rate in our study was very low, only three patients (0.87%) died of this COVID-19 pneumonia.
 Conclusion: Our results showed increased rate of positive cases with fortunately lower mortality rate, although this novel pneumonia was associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome ARDS and intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Timely decisions, risk awareness knowledge and supply of necessary equipments are inevitable for the control of such epidemics.
 doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.7.4060
 How to cite this:Aslam M, Zehri MT, Mandoklel H, Kamal R, Din M. Lower mortality rate in health workers and their families infected with COVID-19 associated pneumonia in Quetta, Baluchistan. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(7):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.7.4060
 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Clinical severity and high-resolution CT severity score in COVID-19: Is there an association

“…This corresponds with studies across the globe reporting severe COVID-19 on CTSS and higher values of CRP, LDH, D-dimers, Ferritin and worsening lymphopenia, including one of our own previous publications 17 , thus further validating our results. [18][19][20] Studies across Pakistan have also reported high inflammatory markers with higher severity of the disease which in turn increase the chances of developing complications and were associated with a higher mortality. 21 Francone reported no relationship between CT severity score and severe and critical disease groups; it may be attributed to small sample size.…”