Post COVID-19 syndrome in patients treated at the Peripheral Emergency Clinics of the Hospital Escuela (cliper), MDC-FM, Honduras, March-September 2021

Abstract

Long COVID is defined by the persistence of clinical signs/symptoms for up to 12 weeks or more and that are not explained by another alternative diagnosis. The objective of this research is to know the current state of health in people confirmed by covid-19 treated during the period from March to September 2021 in Emergency Clinics of the Hospital Escuela (cliper) of the Municipality of the Central District. The approach of this study is cross-sectional descriptive facilitated by the existence of a database of patients infected by covid-19, recruited by phone call with voluntary acceptance that answered a pre-prepared questionnaire. The universe corresponded to 2451 patients, 401 with a registered mobile number and, of them, 187 patients with favorable consent. The analysis was carried out in Epi Info calculating measures of frequencies, distribution, ratios, proportions and applying measures of central tendency and dispersion. The population most affected by covid-19 was 21-40 years old, 33 % were considered moderate cases, 20.5 % were infected on the street, and 15.5 % from an affected family member. The most mentioned comorbidities were hypertension, migraine, and diabetes. The most affected general organic functions were thirst, sleep, and lack of appetite. In 18.7 %, their comorbidity worsened after covid-19 and 25.1 % stopped working due to the disease. In conclusion, the syndrome occurred in 35 to 45 % of the population affected by the disease; Most of them were young, regardless of gender, with a history of hypertension and diabetes. There was an alteration in general organic functions.