Incidence And Clinical Characteristics of The Novel Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) In District Swat

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a disease caused by a novel coronavirus now called SARS-CoV-2;formerly called 2019-nCoV, which was first identified amid an outbreak of respiratory illness cases in Wuhan City, Hubei Province,China. Covid-19 is often associated with some complications i.e. cough, fever , myalgia and with some complications like acuterespiratory failure, pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome. RT-PCR is an effective method for the diagnosis of Covid-19, the disease is associated with lung injury and need medical attention.Objective: The current study was conducted to estimate COVID-19 prevalence and clinical characteristics in district Swat KhyberPakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.Methods and Materials: The study was conducted by collecting information such as gender, age, and demography of patientsfrom molecular PCR lab SGTH (Saidu group of teaching hospital) from May 14 to May 17, 2020.Results: In this study total 400 patients data were collected of which 36 (72%) males and 14 (28%) females were confirmedCOVID-19 positive, out of confirmed positive 9 (81.8%) were having severe symtoms in males and 2 (18.2%) female. During thisstudy, the highest COVID-19 patient was recorded from SGTH and the mean age of patients was 41.8 ± 8.52(SD) and the highestprevalence was in the age groups of 40-49 and the lowest prevalence was recorded in 20-29 age group in which 32 (64%) patientshave contact with confirmed COVID-19 cases, 8 (14%) have no any contact history and 10 (22%) have unknown history.Conclusion: In this study, the overall prevalence of COVID-19 was 12.5%. The most common symptoms of illness onset werefever (78.0%), cough (62.0%), sore throat (70.0%) and flu (18.0%).Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; Covid-19; Pandemic; Real-time Polymerase chain reaction