Open AccessClinical Spectrum, Geographical Variability of COVID-19, and its Implications
Author(s) -
Md. Hasanul Banna Siam,
Abdullah Al Mosabbir,
Nahida Hannan Nishat,
Ammar Ahmed,
Mohammad Sorowar Hossain
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
coronaviruses
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2666-7975
pISSN - 2666-7967
DOI - 10.2174/2666796701999201117103814
Subject(s) - pandemic , covid-19 , epidemiology , asymptomatic , public health , disease , medicine , coronavirus , intensive care medicine , transmission (telecommunications) , infectious disease (medical specialty) , pathology , electrical engineering , engineering
: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has triggered a worldwide unprecedentedpublic health crisis. Initially, COVID-19 was considered a disease of the respiratorysystem, as fever and at least one respiratory symptom was used to identify a suspected COVID-19case. But there are now numerous reports of COVID-19 patients presenting with myriads of extrapulmonarysymptoms, however, a substantial number of patients are asymptomatic. Additionally,there are significant clinical and epidemiological variations of severe acute respiratory syndromecoronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) infection across different geographical locations. The updated research,thus, challenges the existing surveillance system that is mainly based on fever and respiratorysymptoms. As countries are coming out of lockdown to save economic fallout, a revised surveillancestrategy is required to effectively identify and isolate the infected patients. Besides, since developingcountries are becoming the new epicenters of pandemic and there are limited resourcesfor RT-PCR based tests, documenting the clinical spectrum can play a vital role in the syndromicclinical diagnosis of COVID-19. A plethora of atypical symptoms also aids in guiding better treatmentand remains as a source for further research. It is, therefore, crucial to understand the commonand uncommon clinical manifestations of SARS-COV-2 infection and its variability across differentgeographic regions.