key: cord-0315303-vi8k539x authors: Islam, M. A.; Marzan, A. A.; Islam, M. S.; Sultana, S.; Parvej, M. I.; Hossain, M. S. H.; Amin, M. T.; Hossain, F. E.; Barek, M. A.; Hossen, F.; Bahadur, N. M.; Hossen, M. S.; Hossain, M. S.; Alam, M. D.-u.; Ahmed, F. title: Sex-specific epidemiological and clinical characteristics of Covid-19 patients in the southeast region of Bangladesh date: 2021-07-07 journal: nan DOI: 10.1101/2021.07.05.21259933 sha: b6ba9fc35405c4240da8b95d19d4e6025f9c1d82 doc_id: 315303 cord_uid: vi8k539x Purpose: The present study aimed to compare and analyze the sex-specific epidemiological, clinical characteristics, comorbidities, and other information of confirmed COVID-19 patients from the southeast region in Bangladesh for the first time. Methods: 385 lab-confirmed cases were studied out of a total of 2471 tested samples between June 5 and September 10, 2020. RT-PCR was used for COVID-19 identification and SPSS (version 25) for statistical data analysis. Results: We found that male patients were roughly affected compared to females patients (male 74.30% vs. female 25.7%) with an average age of 34.86 +/- 15.442 years, and B (+ve) blood group has been identified as a high-risk factor for COVID-19 infection. Workplace, local market, and bank were signified as sex-specific risk zone (p < 0.001). Pre-existing medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases were identified among the patients. Less than half of the confirmed COVID-19 cases in the southeast region were asymptomatic (37.73%) and more prevalent among females than males (male vs. female: 36.84% vs. 40.51%, p = 0.001). Conclusions: The findings may help health authorities and the government to take necessary steps for identification and isolation, treatment, prevention, and control of this global pandemic. Keywords: COVID-19, Coronavirus disease, Epidemiological, Clinical features, Asymptomatic, Comorbidities Researchers are trying to develop medicine and vaccine to combat COVID-19 and upcoming 75 SARS and MERS viruses (Amanat and Krammer, 2020). Now, public concern and 76 consciousness are the main prohibitions for the COVID-19 outbreak. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. 119 We detected the presence of SARS-CoV-2 by the qPCR method with the novel coronavirus Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data, continuous variables were expressed as 129 mean ±SD, and categorical variables were summarized as counts and percentages. There are 130 several kinds of models for analyzing the relationship between the data sets. As our data are 131 parametric, we used Pearson's Correlation Coefficient (2-tailed). All statistical analysis was (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. and post graduated (11.75%) cases were also observed in our study. Notably, most of the 152 COVID-19 patients were businessmen (18.80%), students (15.43%), civil servants (14.09%), and 153 health workers (8.05%). In male cases, 23.04% of cases were businessmen, followed by 17.83% 154 civil servants and 8.26% health workers. However, a two-thirds portion of the female cases 155 (61.76%) were housewives, followed by 20.59% of students (Figure 2) . All of the confirmed 156 cases ensured that they did not travel to any other countries within the nearest time before being 157 infected. However, most of them visited their workplace (65.95%), local market (45.39%), and 158 All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted July 7, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.05.21259933 doi: medRxiv preprint health care center (13.80%) within the earlier time. About 19.63% and 18.09% of cases visited 159 the bank and relative house, respectively. Our study also explored that only 15.50% of infected 160 persons had clear contact with confirmed cases as far as they know. Additionally, diabetes 161 (5.19%), hypertension (5.97%), asthma (7.53%), allergy (0.52%) cancer (0.78%), pregnancy 162 (2.34%) and others (1.29%) were the most common comorbidities identified among the Analysis of demographic characteristics based on gender-specific is explored in Table 2 . This 168 analysis showed that BMI, and earlier visited places showed significant (p < 0.05) differences Table 3 . Our study also confirmed the sex-specific clinical characteristics of COVID-19. This 179 present study found that less than half of the confirmed COVID-19 cases (37.73%) were 180 symptomatic, and this asymptomatic characteristic was more prevalent among females (40.51%) 181 All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted July 7, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.05.21259933 doi: medRxiv preprint than that of males (36.84%) patients (p = 0.001). Conversely, mortality cases were found higher 182 for males than females with no significant correlation (p = 0.724). Of the patients showing 183 symptoms, the most frequent symptom was fever (29.45%), followed by cough (34.05%) and 184 headache (13.50%), with no significant difference between genders. Fever and cough were 185 observed mainly among females (55.32% and 44.87%) than those of male patients (44.87% and 186 53.85%) cases. Also, 8.28% of cases and 13.50% of cases experienced sore throat and headache. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted July 7, 2021. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted July 7, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.05.21259933 doi: medRxiv preprint Besides, the majority of infected cases were business professionals (18.80%), followed by 229 students (15.43%), civil servants (14.09%), and health workers (8.05%), which is more in this characteristic was more prevalent among females (40.51%) than that of male (36.84%) patients 247 (p = 0.001), which is similar to our findings. We recorded all the identified signs and symptoms 248 of the symptomatic cases. Out of these, the most dominant symptom was cough (34.05%), 249 followed by fever (29.45%). Other symptoms of fatigue (21.78%), headache (13.50%), sore 250 All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted July 7, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.05.21259933 doi: medRxiv preprint throat (8.28%), ache (12.58%), and diarrhea (3.07%) were also found among patients. In the (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted July 7, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.05.21259933 doi: medRxiv preprint Nowadays, COVID-19 is a contagious disease and led to a major global health concern. In the 273 present study, we found that males were more affected than female patients, and middle-aged 274 people were mainly affected in both sexes. Fever, cough, and tiredness were the common 275 symptoms found among patients, and several comorbidities (diabetes, hypertension, and asthma) 276 were present among patients. Maximum COVID-19 patents were B (+ve), and businessmen were 277 mostly affected by this infectious virus. We also observed that male patients were mainly 278 affected by the coronavirus may due to the earlier visit to the workplace, local-market, and bank. This study raises the knowledge about COVID-19 and helps to take effective and proper 280 decisions to identify risk factors to control this pandemic. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted July 7, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.05.21259933 doi: medRxiv preprint Amanat F, Krammer F. SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines: Status Report. Immunity 2020;52:583-9. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted July 7, 2021. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted July 7, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.05.21259933 doi: medRxiv preprint Diabetes 14 (4.86%) 6 (6.18%) 0.612 All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted July 7, 2021. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted July 7, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.05.21259933 doi: medRxiv preprint All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted July 7, 2021. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted July 7, 2021. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted July 7, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.05.21259933 doi: medRxiv preprint Association between ABO blood groups and 356 risk of SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia Drug treatment options for the 2019-new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Genomic characterisation and epidemiology of 361 2019 novel coronavirus: implications for virus origins and receptor binding CT imaging and clinical course of 364 asymptomatic cases with COVID-19 pneumonia at admission in Wuhan Sex-specific clinical characteristics and 367 prognosis of coronavirus disease-19 infection in Wuhan, China: A retrospective study of 168 368 severe patients COVID 19 can spread through breathing, talking, study estimates Clinical characteristics of older patients 372 infected with COVID-19: A descriptive study The epidemiological characteristics of an outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus 375 diseases (COVID-19) in China. Zhonghua Liu Xing Bing Xue Za Zhi= Zhonghua 376