Jurnal internasional Afrika vol.11 issue 4 2021
African Journal of Emergency Medicine
Demographics and clinical characteristics of hospitalised patients under investigation for COVID-19 with an initial negative SARS-CoV-2 PCR test result

Dublin Core

Title

Jurnal internasional Afrika vol.11 issue 4 2021
African Journal of Emergency Medicine
Demographics and clinical characteristics of hospitalised patients under investigation for COVID-19 with an initial negative SARS-CoV-2 PCR test result

Subject

COVID-19
South Africa
Emergency
District
Negative

Description

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is placing abnormally high and ongoing demands on healthcare systems.
Little is known about the full effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on diseases other than COVID-19 in the South
African setting.
Objective: To describe a cohort of hospitalised patients under investigation for SARS-CoV-2 that initially tested
negative.

Methods: Consecutive patients hospitalised at Khayelitsha Hospital from April to June 2020, whose initial po-
lymerase chain reaction test for SARS-CoV-2 was negative were included. Patient demographics, clinical char-
acteristics, ICD-10 (International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th

Revision) diagnosis, referral to tertiary level facilities and ICU, and all-cause in-hospital mortality were collected.
The 90-day re-test rate was determined and comparisons were made using the χ2

-test and the independent

samples median test.
Results: Overall, 261 patients were included: median age 39.8 years, 55.6% female (n = 145). Frequent
comorbidities included HIV (41.4%), hypertension (26.4%), and previous or current tuberculosis (24.1%). Nine
(3.7%) patients were admitted to ICU and 38 (15.6%) patients died. Ninety-three patients (35.6%) were re-tested
and 21 (22.6%) were positive for SARS-CoV-2. The top primary diagnoses related to respiratory diseases (n = 82,
33.6%), and infectious and parasitic diseases (n = 62, 25.4%). Thirty-five (14.3%) had a COVID-19 diagnostic
code assigned (26 without microbiological confirmation) and 43 (16.5%) had tuberculosis. Older age (p =
0.001), chronic renal impairment (p = 0.03) and referral to higher level of care (all p < 0.001; ICU p = 0.03)
were more frequent in those that died.
Conclusion: Patients with tuberculosis and other diseases are still presenting to emergency centres with symptoms

that may be attributable to SARS-CoV-2 and requiring admission. Extreme vigilance will be necessary to diag-
nosis and treat tuberculosis and other diseases as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Creator

D.J. van Hoving , N. Hattingh , S.K. Pillay , T. Lockey , D.J. McAlpine , K. Nieuwenhuys , E. Erasmus

Source

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.afjem.2021.09.002

Date

16 September 2021

Contributor

peri irawan

Format

pdf

Language

english

Type

text

Files

Tags

,Repository, Repository Horizon University Indonesia, Repository Universitas Horizon Indonesia, Horizon.ac.id, Horizon University Indonesia, Universitas Horizon Indonesia, HorizonU, Repo Horizon ,

Citation

D.J. van Hoving , N. Hattingh , S.K. Pillay , T. Lockey , D.J. McAlpine , K. Nieuwenhuys , E. Erasmus , “Jurnal internasional Afrika vol.11 issue 4 2021
African Journal of Emergency Medicine
Demographics and clinical characteristics of hospitalised patients under investigation for COVID-19 with an initial negative SARS-CoV-2 PCR test result,” Repository Horizon University Indonesia, accessed April 3, 2025, https://repository.horizon.ac.id/items/show/1852.