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Clinical Characteristics of the First 100 Patients of COVID-19 in Tobruk, Libya: A Brief Report From Low-Resource Settings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2021

Faisal Ismail Open the ORCID record for Faisal Ismail [Opens in a new window] ,
Atiya Farag ,
Soghra Haq  and
Mohammad A. Kamal
Faisal Ismail*
Affiliation:
Clinical Laboratory Department, Faculty of Medical Technology, University of Tobruk, Tobruk, Libya National Centre for Disease Control, Tobruk, Libya
Atiya Farag
Affiliation:
National Centre for Disease Control, Tobruk, Libya
Soghra Haq
Affiliation:
Clinical Laboratory Department, Faculty of Medical Technology, University of Tobruk, Tobruk, Libya
Mohammad A. Kamal
Affiliation:
West China School of Nursing/Institutes for Systems Genetics, Frontiers Science Centre for Disease-related Molecular Network, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China King Fahd Medical Research Centre, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Enzymoics, Novel Global Community Educational Foundation, Australia
*
Corresponding author: Faisal Ismail, Email: faisal.ismail@tu.edu.ly.
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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.

Keywords

chest X-rayCOVID-19laboratory findingsLibyarapid test antibodiesSARS-CoV-2
Type
Brief Report
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 16 , Issue 6 , December 2022 , pp. 2331 - 2334
Copyright
© Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2021

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