Comparing Disease Severity Among COVID-19 Patients In Pakistan; Healthy Vs Compromised Respiratory Systems

Abstract

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2, also called Coronavirus Disease 19 became rampant, globally after its detection by the end of 2019 in Wuhan, city of China. Some countries were greatly affected due to this pandemic, as compared to some other countries. Likewise, Pakistan was also one of the countries that came under intense pressure from the spread of novel virus. Although, Pakistan succeeded in curbing the spread of virus, but still, many citizens fell a victim to it. Some individuals who contracted Covid-19 displayed mild symptoms while others showed disease severity and had to be hospitalized or admitted to Intense Care Units. The display of varying levels of intensity of Covid-19 symptoms could be due to many reasons but, one of the many reasons could be pre-existing health issues, especially pre-existence of Chronic Respiratory Diseases, such as Asthma, COPD, TB, Lung Cancer etc. In this Public Health Assessment two groups were defined, first group comprised of Covid-19 patients with pre-existing CRDs, while the other group, did not suffer from any CRDs. So, this health assessment was carried out in order to compare Covid-19 disease severity among the two groups based on different disease severity parameters and then, to further elaborate on Covid-19 disease severity with respect to different CRDs by individually comparing them to the group which did not suffer from CRDs. For this study 2 surveys were conducted for 2 different target population, one was the general public who contracted Covid-19 and the other target population was the doctors. After the data was gathered from both surveys, it was statistically analyzed using, Relative Risk/ Risk Ratio, Relative Risk Reduction (Increase) and Chi-Squared Goodness of Fit test. The overall results displayed an RRI (RR) of 59% (1.59) for increase in the risk of severe outcomes for Covid-19 patients who do have any kind of CRD. Individuals with CRD displayed an RRI (RR) of 1% (1.01), 177% (2.77), 795% (8.95) and 19% (1.19) for the need of anti-viral medication, Supplemental Oxygen, ventilator, and a recovery in more than 10 days. Then, RR and RRR(I) for each CRD was calculated separately too, which showed that some CRDs provided protective effects for anti-viral medicine and Supplemental Oxygen. The results obtained after analyzing the data from doctors’ questionnaires, suggested that in their opinion Covid-19 patients with CRDs are at more risk of developing disease severity.