Journal article
Faisal Ismail, Atiya Farag, S. Haq, M. Kamal
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, Cambridge University Press, 2021
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, Cambridge University Press, 2021
DOI
PubMedCentral
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APA
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Ismail, F., Farag, A., Haq, S., & Kamal, M. (2021). Clinical Characteristics of the First 100 Patients of COVID-19 in Tobruk, Libya: A Brief Report From Low-Resource Settings. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness.
Chicago/Turabian
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Ismail, Faisal, Atiya Farag, S. Haq, and M. Kamal. “Clinical Characteristics of the First 100 Patients of COVID-19 in Tobruk, Libya: A Brief Report From Low-Resource Settings.” Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness (2021).
MLA
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Ismail, Faisal, et al. “Clinical Characteristics of the First 100 Patients of COVID-19 in Tobruk, Libya: A Brief Report From Low-Resource Settings.” Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, Cambridge University Press, 2021.
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@article{faisal2021a,
title = {Clinical Characteristics of the First 100 Patients of COVID-19 in Tobruk, Libya: A Brief Report From Low-Resource Settings},
year = {2021},
journal = {Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness},
publisher = {Cambridge University Press},
author = {Ismail, Faisal and Farag, Atiya and Haq, S. and Kamal, M.}
}
Abstract
Objective: This study aims to report the clinical features of a cohort of patients with suspected coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from Tobruk, Libya, and reflect upon the diagnosis challenge in low-resource settings. Methods: A descriptive report of the first 100 patients with suspected COVID-19 who have visited the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and COVID-19 screening clinic at the National Centre for Disease Control in Tobruk, Libya. Results: The most common presenting symptoms were fever (90%), cough (89%), dyspnea (85%), sore throat (79%), fatigue (78%), headache (64%), loss of smell (52%), loss of taste (53%), loss of appetite (43%), nausea and vomiting (26%), diarrhea (22%), and rhinorrhea (16%); 51% of the patients had lymphocytopenia, whereas 13% had thrombocytopenia. Bilateral infiltrates were the most common radiologic finding on chest X-ray (76%), and COVID-19 IgM and/or IgG antibodies were detected in 80% of the patients, whereas only 37% of the patients were tested positive by the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Conclusions: The disease continued its spread across the region. Fever, cough, and dyspnea were the main symptoms; 21% of the patients did not have any chest X-ray abnormalities. Initial negative results for either antibody testing or RT-PCR-testing for COVID-19 do not rule out the infection.