Early cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Uganda: epidemiology and lessons learned from risk-based testing approaches – March-April 2020

Table 2 Clinical characteristics of first 54 persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection admitted to hospitals in Uganda

Characteristic (n = 54 cases)	n	%
Onset of symptoms
Symptomatic at sample collection	29	54
Became symptomatic after sample collection	5	9
Never became symptomatic at all	20	37
Had underlying medical condition	15	28
Comorbidities^c (n = 15)
Hypertension	6	40
Diabetes mellitus	4	27
HIV	2	13
Pre-existing malignancy	1	7
HIV & diabetes mellitus	1	7
Hypertension & diabetes mellitus	1	7
Pregnant	1	2
Symptoms (n = 34)
Fever^a	16	47
Headache	13	38
Cough^ab	10	29
Runny nose^b	8	23
Chest pain^b	6	18
Chills	4	12
Shortness of breath^ab	3	9
Sore throat^b	3	9
Nausea	3	9
Diarrhe	3	9
Joint pains	2	6
Irritability or confusion	2	6
Vomiting	1	3
Abdominal pain	1	3
Symptom classification (n = 34)
Any one typical^a symptom	22	65
Two typicala symptoms	6	18
All three typical^a symptoms	1	3
Any respiratory^b symptoms	16	47
Only atypical symptoms	12	35
Treatment outcome at time of manuscript-writing
Recovered	46	85
Still in isolation	8	15
Admitted to intensive care unit	0	0
Died	0	0

^aTypical symptoms defined as: fever, cough, shortness of breath [7]. ^bRespiratory symptoms defined as: cough, chest pain, shortness of breath, runny nose and sore throat;
^cComorbidities: HIV Hypertension, Diabetes mellitus, Malignancy

ISSN: 1744-8603