Open AccessIncidentally Diagnosed COVID-19 in the Emergency Department: A Case Series
Author(s) -
Alireza Jalali,
Ehsan Karimi Alavijeh,
Ehsan Aliniagerdroudbari,
Sepideh Babaniamansour
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
case reports in clinical practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2538-2691
pISSN - 2538-2683
DOI - 10.18502/crcp.v5is1.6238
Subject(s) - emergency department , asymptomatic , covid-19 , medicine , complaint , personal protective equipment , medical emergency , transmission (telecommunications) , coronavirus , test (biology) , emergency medicine , intensive care medicine , disease , pathology , nursing , infectious disease (medical specialty) , computer science , telecommunications , paleontology , political science , law , biology
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become the most important challenge for health care worldwide. COVID-19 can be presented as an asymptomatic infection primarily or entirely, which plays a critical role in human-to-human transmission. This issue poses a huge challenge to the patients seeking care in the Emergency Department (ED). We described the incidental diagnosis of COVID-19 among 11 patients referring to the ED due to the complaints not in favor of COVID-19. All patients had lung involvements in their chest computed tomography scan, and positive reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction test. It is suggested that during the COVID-19 outbreak, all the staff in the ED must be extremely cautious and deploy recommended personal protective equipment regardless of the patient’s primary complaint. All patients and their family members must be protected against any suspicious contacts while visiting the ED.