Abstract:
Abstract
Background
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) that emerged from the Chinese
mainland has spread throughout the world affecting the normal lives of the people. Both developed and
developing nations have been equally affected and coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) resulted in the death
of millions of people worldwide. The virus is undergoing mutations and is evolving into variants that are
responsible for wave after wave. This study was carried out to assess the clinical outcomes of people infected
with the novel virus during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India.
Methods
The study was carried out between November 2021 and January 2022 and included 100 consecutive patients
attending the hospital attached to the BLDE (Deemed to be University) Shri B.M. Patil Medical College,
Bijapur, Karnataka, South India. All patients included in the study returned a positive report in a real-time
polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The patient details collected included age, sex, cycle threshold (Ct)
values for envelope (E)/nucleocapsid (N), and Orf1b (open reading frame 1b) genes, hospitalization status,
vaccine status, C-reactive protein (CRP), D-dimer, interleukin-6 (IL-6), and final clinical outcome. The data
were entered into Microsoft Office Excel sheets, and statistical inferences were drawn using SPSS 24 (IBM
Corp., Armonk, NY).
Results
Of the 100 patients included in the study, only 14 (14%) patients were vaccinated. The patient's mean age
was 34.22±17.50. Among the vaccinated patients, the majority had taken COVISHIELD™ (85.71%) compared
to COVAXIN
® (14.29%). Only 14% of patients were symptomatic, and the mean Ct values among all the
patients were 29.92±3.74 (E gene/N gene) and 27.6±4.78 (Orf1B gene). Eight (8%) patients were hospitalized,
and all the patients recovered from the infection. Among the hospitalized patients, six (75%) were
vaccinated. The mean age of the hospitalized patients was 43.8±14.25 years. The mean CRP, D-dimer, and IL6 concentrations among the hospitalized patients were noted to be 22.375±16.58 mg/L, 654.325±577.24
ng/mL, and 5.075±2.15 ng/mL, respectively.
Conclusion
The study results demonstrate that despite unvaccinated status, most patients in the third wave had only
suffered from asymptomatic infection. Moreover, people who developed a clinical infection and those who
required hospitalization had an uneventful recovery irrespective of their vaccination status.
