RESUMEN
BackgroundCOVID-19 has become a global pandemic with a high growth rate of confirmed cases. In Bangladesh, both mortality and affected rates are increasing at an alarming rate. Therefore, more comprehensive studies of the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 are required to control this pandemic. PurposeThe 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. Methods385 lab-confirmed cases were studied out of 2,471 tested samples between 5 June and 10 September 2020. RT-PCR was used for COVID-19 identification and SPSS (version 25) for statistical data analysis. ResultsWe 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). ConclusionsThe findings may help health authorities and the government take necessary steps for identification and isolation, treatment, prevention, and control of this global pandemic.
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In the course of a COVID-19 pandemic, 0.33 million people got infected in Bangladesh, we made the first and successful attempt to detect SARS-CoV-2 viruses genetic material in the vicinity wastewaters of an isolation centre i.e. Shaheed Bhulu Stadium, situated at Noakhali. The idea was to understand the genetic loading variation, both temporal and distance-wise in the nearby wastewater drains when the number of infected COVID-19 patients is not varying much. Owing to the fact that isolation center, in general, always contained a constant number of 200 COVID-19 patients, the prime objective of the study was to check if several drains carrying RNA of coronavirus are actually getting diluted or accumulated along with the sewage network. Our finding suggested that while the temporal variation of the genetic load decreased in small drains over the span of 50 days, the main sewer exhibited accumulation of SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Other interesting finding displays that probably distance of sampling location in meters is not likely to have a significant impact on gene detection concentration, although the quantity of the RNA extracted in the downstream of the drain was higher. These findings are of immense value from the perspective of wastewater surveillance of COVID-19, as they largely imply that we do not need to monitor every wastewater system, and probably major drains monitoring may illustrate the city health. Perhaps, we are reporting the accumulation of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material along the sewer network i.e. from primary to tertiary drains. The study sought further data collection in this line to simulate conditions prevailed in the most of south Asian country and to shed further light on the temporal variation and decay/accumulation processes of the genetic load of the SARS-COV-2. HIGHLIGHTSO_LIFirst detection report of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the wastewaters of Bangladesh. C_LIO_LIWe traced the genetic load in the vicinity of the isolation center with 200 COVID-19 patients. C_LIO_LIAbout 75% of positive samples were found during the monitoring period. C_LIO_LIMain sewer and canal exhibit temporal accumulation of genetic load of SARS-CoV-2 C_LIO_LIIn general, shredding shows a variable trend during the sampling tenure. C_LI