Abstract: PLOS ONE RESEARCH ARTICLE Clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients hospitalized at Clinique Ngaliema, a public hospital in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A retrospective cohort study a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 OPEN ACCESS Citation: Matangila JR, Nyembu RK, Telo GM, Ngoy CD, Sakobo TM, Massolo JM, et al. (2020) Clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients hospitalized at Clinique Ngaliema, a public hospital in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A retrospective cohort study. PLoS ONE 15(12): e0244272. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0244272 Editor: Raffaele Serra, University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro, ITALY Received: September 12, 2020 Accepted: December 7, 2020 Published: December 18, 2020 Peer Review History: PLOS recognizes the benefits of transparency in the peer review process; therefore, we enable the publication of all of the content of peer review and author responses alongside final, published articles. The editorial history of this article is available here: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244272 Copyright: © 2020 Matangila et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: The data underlying this study cannot be shared publicly, as it is the Junior Rika Matangila ID1,2*, Ritha Kibambe Nyembu1,3, Gloire Mosala Telo1, Christian Djuba Ngoy1, Taty Msueun Sakobo1, Joel Mbembo Massolo1, Blandine Mbo Muyembe1, Richard Kapela Mvwala1, Cedric Kabemba Ilunga1,4, Emmanuel Bakilo Limbole1, Jeff Mukengeshay Ntalaja1, Roger Minga Kongo1 1 Clinique Ngaliema, Kinshasa, République Démocratique du Congo, 2 Département de Médecine Tropicale, Université de Kinshasa, Kinshasa, République Démocratique du Congo, 3 Département de Biologie Médicale, Cliniques Universitaires de Kinshasa, Kinshasa, République Démocratique du Congo, 4 Département de Médecine Interne, Cliniques Universitaires de Kinshasa, Kinshasa, République Démocratique du Congo * matangilaj@yahoo.fr Abstract Objectives To describe the clinical characteristics of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 at Clinique Ngaliema, a public hospital, in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Methods This retrospective study analyzed medical records including socio-demographics, past medical history, clinical manifestation, comorbidities, laboratory data, treatment and disease outcome of 160 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, with confirmed result of SARS-CoV-2 viral infection. Results The median age of patients was 54 years (IQR: 38–64), and there was no significant gender difference (51% of male). The most common comorbidities were hypertension (55 [34%]), diabetes (31 [19%]) and obesity (13 [8%]). Fever (93 [58%]), cough (92 [57%]), fatigue (87 [54%]), shortness of breath (72 [45%]) and myalgia (33 [21%]) were the most common symptoms, upon admission. Patients were categorized into mild (92 [57%]), moderate (19 [12%]) and severe (49 [31%]). Severe patients were older and were more likely to have comorbidities, compared to mild ones. The majority of patients (92% [147 of 160]) patients received hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine phosphate. Regression model revealed that older age, lower SpO2, higher heart rate and elevated AST at admission were all risk factors PLOS ONE |..