Epidemiology and Clinical Characteristics in Individuals with Confirmed SARS-CoV-2 Infection During the Early COVID-19 Pandemic in Saudi Arabia

{ 'institution': [{'name': 'medRxiv'}], 'indexed': {'date-parts': [[2022, 3, 30]], 'date-time': '2022-03-30T03:03:21Z', 'timestamp': 1648609401975}, 'posted': {'date-parts': [[2021, 7, 16]]}, 'group-title': 'Epidemiology', 'reference-count': 31, 'publisher': 'Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory', 'content-domain': {'domain': [], 'crossmark-restriction': False}, 'accepted': {'date-parts': [[2021, 7, 16]]}, 'abstract': '<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ' '(SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of the catastrophic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ' 'global pandemic. This study aimed to provide epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of ' 'patients with confirmed COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia and to determine whether characteristic ' 'profiles differ between patients who are symptomatic vs. asymptomatic for the disease. The ' 'first 492 consecutive patients diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection at King Faisal Specialist ' 'Hospital and Research Centre in Saudi Arabia between March and September 2020 were included ' 'in this study. An electronic case report form developed using REDCap was used to collect data ' 'for each patient, including demographic characteristics, virus exposure (travel history, and ' 'human and animal contact), vaccination history, comorbidities, signs and symptoms, laboratory ' 'and radiographic reports, cardiac workup, medications, treatment regimens, and patient ' 'outcome. This patient cohort was 54% male, with 20.4% aged more than 60 years, 19.9% aged 31 ' 'to 40 years, and 17% aged 41 to 50 years. Most patients (79.2%) were symptomatic. Variables ' 'that significantly differed between symptomatic and asymptomatic patients were age, blood ' 'oxygen saturation percentage, hemoglobin level, lymphocyte count, neutrophil to lymphocyte ' '(NTL) ratio, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level, and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) ' 'level. Asymptomatic patients were mostly younger, with lower body mass index and ALT and AST ' 'levels but higher lymphocyte counts, NTL ratio, and CD4, CD8, natural killer cell, IgG, and ' 'IgM levels. The median incubation period reported for this cohort was 16 day, with upper and ' 'lower 95% quartiles of 27 and 10 days, respectively. Factors associated with increased risk ' 'of mortality were age (older than 42 years) and comorbidities, including specifically ' 'diabetes mellitus and hypertension. Patients who were not given an antiviral regimen were ' 'associated with better prognosis than patients who received an antiviral regimen (HR, 0.07; ' '95% CI, 0.011-0.25). Similar to countries worldwide, Saudi Arabia has explored treatment ' 'options to save the lives of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our analyses will inform ' 'clinicians as well as policy makers to adopt the best strategies for SARS-CoV-2 infection ' 'management and treatment options.</jats:p>', 'DOI': '10.1101/2021.07.13.21260428', 'type': 'posted-content', 'created': {'date-parts': [[2021, 7, 16]], 'date-time': '2021-07-16T22:05:15Z', 'timestamp': 1626473115000}, 'source': 'Crossref', 'is-referenced-by-count': 0, 'title': 'Epidemiology and Clinical Characteristics in Individuals with Confirmed SARS-CoV-2 Infection ' 'During the Early COVID-19 Pandemic in Saudi Arabia', 'prefix': '10.1101', 'author': [ { 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1765-4310', 'authenticated-orcid': False, 'given': 'Fatimah S.', 'family': 'Alhamlan', 'sequence': 'first', 'affiliation': []}, { 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1275-8324', 'authenticated-orcid': False, 'given': 'Reem S.', 'family': 'Almaghrabi', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Edward B.', 'family': 'Devol', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Anwar B.', 'family': 'Alotaibi', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Saleh M.', 'family': 'Alageel', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, { 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0251-1894', 'authenticated-orcid': False, 'given': 'Dalia A.', 'family': 'Obeid', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, { 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1565-1829', 'authenticated-orcid': False, 'given': 'Basem M.', 'family': 'Alraddadi', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, { 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0740-7869', 'authenticated-orcid': False, 'given': 'Sahar I.', 'family': 'Althawadi', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, { 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0641-9617', 'authenticated-orcid': False, 'given': 'Maysoon S.', 'family': 'Mutabagani', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, { 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4584-5739', 'authenticated-orcid': False, 'given': 'Ahmed A.', 'family': 'Al-Qahtani', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}], 'member': '246', 'reference': [ { 'key': '2021071903551074000_2021.07.13.21260428v1.1', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.1056/NEJMoa2001017'}, { 'key': '2021071903551074000_2021.07.13.21260428v1.2', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30211-7'}, { 'issue': '7', 'key': '2021071903551074000_2021.07.13.21260428v1.3', 'doi-asserted-by': 'crossref', 'first-page': '699', 'DOI': '10.3855/jidc.13203', 'article-title': 'Containment of COVID-19: the unprecedented response of Saudi Arabia', 'volume': '14', 'year': '2020', 'journal-title': 'J Infect Dev Ctries'}, { 'key': '2021071903551074000_2021.07.13.21260428v1.4', 'unstructured': 'MOH, “ https://covid19.moh.gov.sa/ ”2021.'}, { 'key': '2021071903551074000_2021.07.13.21260428v1.5', 'unstructured': 'W. 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