Journal of Infection and Public Health (Jul 2021)

Large variations in disease severity, death and ICU admission of 2993 patients infected with SARS-CoV-2: The potential impact of genetic vulnerability

  • Halah Mohammed Farajallah,
  • Sara Khamis AlSuwaidi,
  • Shatha Mohammad AlSuwaidi,
  • Ghada AlAhmdani AlAli,
  • Amani Salem AlZubaidi,
  • Frederick Robert Carrick,
  • Mahera Abdulrahman

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 7
pp. 886 – 891

Abstract

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had an immeasurable impact, affecting healthcare systems, the global economy, and society. Exploration of trends within the existing COVID-19 data may guide directions for further study and novel treatment development. As the world faces COVID-19 disease, it is essential to study its epidemiological and clinical characteristics further to better understand and aid in its detection and containment. Methods: We aimed to study the clinical characteristics of patients infected with COVID-19 in Dubai, a multi-national Society. Results: Our findings demonstrate that during the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic, age, gender, and country of origin were associated with more severe cases of COVID-19, higher risk for hospitalization and death. Male individuals between 41 and 60 years of age from India had the most significant hospitalization and death predictor (p = .0001). The predictors for COVID-19 related deaths were slightly less than UAE Nationals by individuals from GCC (p = .02) that were followed closely behind by Pilipino (p = .02) and Arabs (p = .001). Conclusion: The vulnerability of individuals to infection and in the spectrum of COVID-19 symptoms remains to be understood. There are large variations in disease severity, one component of which may be genetic variability in responding to the virus. Genomics of susceptibility to COVID-19 infection and the wide variation in clinical response to COVID-19 in patients should become active investigation areas.

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