Abstract :

Introduction: The new pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread rapidly across the globe since first described four months ago after an epidemic of pneumonia and deaths.

Objectives: The main objective of the study is to find the diagnosis of COVID-19 versus tropical diseases in Pakistan.

Material and methods: This cross sectional study was conducted in BHU Shikar Pur,District Rajan pur during June 2021 to January 2022. The data was collected from 50 patients who attending the ICU and OPD of the hospital. History of high fever, chills, dry cough, myalgias, and diarrhea were noted in all patients.

Results: The data was collected from 100 patients. Initial laboratory tests were mostly unremarkable but showed mild elevation of liver function tests in all patients. Nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs were tested for severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 by reverse transcriptase–Polymerase chain reaction, and both tests were negative.

Conclusion: It is concluded that COVID-19 is emerging as a pressing threat worldwide, this case underscores the need for clinicians practicing in Pakistan and other tropical regions to consider the possibility of common tropical diseases in all suspected patients.

---

Keywords :

COVID-19, Diseases, Infection, Tropical

---

References :

1. Facciorusso A., Del Prete V., Antonino M., Neve V., Crucinio N., Di Leo A. Serum ferritin as a new prognostic factor in hepatocellular carcinoma patients treated with radiofrequency ablation. J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2014;29(11):1905–1910.
2. Fang X., Mei Q., Yang T., Zhang L., Yang Y., Wang Y. Clinical characteristics and treatment strategies of 79 patients with COVID-19 (In Chinese) Chin Pharmacol Bull. 2020;36(4)
3. Wells G.A., Shea Brooke, O’connell Dianne L., Peterson Joan, Welch V., Losos Michael. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for assessing the quality of nonrandomised studies in meta-analyses. Open J Rheumatol Autoimmune Dis. 2014;4
4. Gao Y., Li T., Han M., Li X., Wu D., Xu Y. Diagnostic utility of clinical laboratory data determinations for patients with the severe COVID-19. J Med Virol. 2020
5. Guan W.J., Ni Z.Y., Hu Y., Liang W.H., Ou C.Q., He J.X. Clinical characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 in China. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(18):1708–1720.
6. Huang C., Wang Y., Li X., Ren L., Zhao J., Hu Y. Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. 2020;395(10223):497–506.
7. Bokhari, S., Mahmood, F., & Bokhari, S. (2020). Case Report: Diagnosis of COVID-19 versus Tropical Diseases in Pakistan. The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene, 103(1), 77–78. https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.20-0356
8. Dietz FJ, Nieburg P, Gubler DJ, Gomez I, 1992. Diagnosis of measles by clinical case definition in dengue-endemic areas: implications for measles surveillance and control. Bull World Health Organ70: 745–750.
9. Hickman CJ, et al. 2011. Laboratory characterization of measles virus infection in previously vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. J Infect Dis204 (Suppl 1): 549–558
10. Khan T, Qazi J, 2014. Measles outbreaks in Pakistan: causes of the tragedy and future implications. Epidemiol Rep2: 1.
11. Saba S, Khan AUR, Naeem-Ullah U, Bokhari SHM, 2019. Clinical profiles of dengue fever patients, during an outbreak. J Arthropod Borne Dis13: 126–134.
12. World Health Organization , 2019. Epidemic and pandemic-prone diseases Outbreak update – Dengue in Pakistan, 1 December 2019 [Internet]. Available at: http://www.emro.who.int/pandemic-epidemic-diseases/dengue/outbreak-update-dengue-in-pakistan-1-december-2019.html.