Introduction: The recently discovered novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has emerged in Wuhan, China, since January 2020. Egypt reported a low incidence of infection when compared with other countries. The aim of the study was to assess the characterization of COVID-19 infection among the Egyptian population.
Methodology: Data were collected from a single COVID-19 quarantine hospital in Cairo. A total number of 195 cases were included with their clinical, laboratory, and radiological data.
Results: Three different age groups behaved differently for COVD-19 infection. The pediatric age group was asymptomatic entirely, the middle age group (18-50 years) were asymptomatic in 53.3% of cases, while 77.9% of those above 50 years were symptomatic (p ≤ 0.001). The latter group had a high incidence of COVID-pneumonia in (83.1%), and moderate to critical presentations were encountered in 66.3% of them. Neutrophil to lymphocyte (N/L) ratio correlated directly with the age and case severity. C-reactive protein (CRP) and computed tomography scan chest (CT-chest) had added value on COVID-19 diagnosis in suspected cases.
Conclusions: In Egypt, patients above 50 years are at a higher risk for symptomatic COVID-19 infection and leaner for moderate to critical COVID-19 presentation. The triad of CT-chest, CRP, and N/L ratio could be an integrated panel for assessing disease severity.
Keywords: COVID-19; Egypt; SARS-CoV-2; age group; clinical presentation; coronavirus.
Copyright (c) 2020 Mohamed El Kassas, Noha Asem, Amr Abdelazeem, Ahmad Madkour, Hamdy Sayed, Ahmed Tawheed, Ahmed Al Shafie, Mahmoud Gamal, Hassan Elsayed, Mohamed Badr, Mohamed Hassany, Dalia Omran, Amr El Fouly.