Epidemiology and clinical features of common community human coronavirus disease

We would evaluate the epidemiology, clinical aspects, and prognostic factors of patients of all ages admitted with human corona virus (HCoV).

This study was retrospectively performed at five university teaching hospitals between 1st January 2018 and 31th March 2020. Routine molecular testing using for multiplex real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) methods was conducted on the respiratory viruses. We assessed the demographics, laboratory findings, and treatment of patients infected with coronavirus.

There were 807 coronavirus-infected patients from 24,311 patients with respiratory virus PCR test admitted to five hospitals over 27 months. All-cause mortality rates of patients admitted for seasonal HCoV disease were 3.1% in all patients and 10.8% in patients aged ≥18 years. The Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was performed in patients aged ≥18 years. After adjusting for other clinical variables, general weakness symptoms [hazard ratio (HR), 2.651; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.147-6.125, P=0.023], National Early Warning Score (NEWS) ≥2 (HR, 5.485; 95% CI, 1.261-23.858, P=0.023), and coronavirus subtype OC43 (HR, 2.500; 95% CI, 1.060-5.897, P=0.036) were significantly associated with death from coronavirus.

Coronavirus infection can reveal a higher mortality rate in patients of ≥18 than those of <18 years, thus, adult patients require more careful treatment. Furthermore, in adult patients, the factors associated with death from coronavirus include general weakness symptoms, NEWS higher than 2, and OC43 subtype.