Clinical Profile and Prevalence of COVID-19 among Suspected Cases at Kara University Hospital, TOGO from 2020 to 2023: A Retrospective Study

Case Report

Abstract

Introduction : The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is unprecedented for the past 100 years in terms of impacts on human activity. From the beginning of the pandemic, each country affected by COVID-19 infection including Togo provided daily general information in relation to the number of cases detected, confirmed, under treatment, recovered and deceased. Based on this, we found it appropriate to do this study to assess the particular situation of COVID 19 infection at Kara University Hospital with the objective of describing the clinical profile and prevalence of suspected cases. 

Methods : This was a retrospective study of the records of patients received in consultation or hospitalized in the various departments of the CHU Kara who had benefited from an RT-PCR test on nasopharyngeal swabs for the diagnosis of Covid-19 from March 2020 to March 2023. Included in this study were all patients who had symptoms of covid 19, those who had returned from travel and those who had contact with a patient with covid 19.

Results : During the study period, 754 patients had received an RT-PCR test on nasopharyngeal swabs for the diagnosis of Covid-19. These were mainly men with a sex ratio of 1.64. These 754 patients were divided into 132 contact cases (17.51%), 567 suspected cases (75.20%), 35 tests (4.64%) and 20 travellers (2.65%).  With regard to suspected cases, the most represented age group was 25-34 years (21.16%), followed by 35-44 years (19.75%), and 45-54 (16.40%). Those over 65 accounted for 10.23% and those under 15 accounted for 6%.

The most common clinical signs in suspected cases were cough (58.89%), followed by fever (45.15), general weakness (42.50%), headache (36.33%), shortness of breath (32.63%), muscle aches (28.92), runny nose (28.57%).

Finally, of the 567 suspected cases, 157 (27.69%) have been confirmed, including 55 women. The evolution was marked by 09 (5.73%) deaths including 03 women.

Conclusion : This study confirms the frequency of Covid-19 in the various departments of the Kara University Hospital with a relatively low mortality rate, probably because of the young age of the affected subjects. Compliance with barrier measures should be continued to avoid further epidemics or even deaths.