Epidemiological and Clinical Profile of COVID-19 Patients Hospitalized in University Hospitals in Mali

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a significant number of patients worldwide, associating mortality and sequelae. Its clinical presentation is very polymorphic and its tropism largely explains the different manifestations encountered. In order to determine the sociodemographic characteristics of patients hospitalized in the University Hospitals of Mali (CHU) for COVID-19, we conducted a study in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This was a retrospective, descriptive, multicenter study over 12 months from March 2020 to February 2021 at the level of the various university hospitals in Mali, namely: Gabriel Touré University Hospital, Point-G University Hospital, Kati, Mali Hospital and Bamako Dermatology Hospital. Results: We collected 1349 patients out of 8376 cases during the period, i.e. 16.10%. Point G University Hospital accounted for 51.2% of admissions. The average age of the patients was 30 years old. The male sex was predominant with a sex ratio of 2.20. The median length of hospitalization was 8 days. The general signs were fatigue (11.6%) and asthenia (5.8%). The symptomatology was dominated by cough (23.1%), dyspnea (11.9%), headache (8.4%), anosmia (4.6%) and vomiting (2.1%). Biological abnormalities were dominated by anemia (13.9%), leucopenia (11.7%), hyperleukocytosis (4.8%), hypercreatinineemia (44.9%), hyperglycemia (9.8 %) and hypertransaminasemia (25.4%). Chest CT was performed in 10 patients, i.e. 0.7%; the most common radiological sign was multifocal ground glass opacities (100%). The evolution was favorable (88.2%), with 7.8% of cases of death. Conclusion: COVID-19 remains a polymorphic condition both in terms of symptoms, biology and imaging, further questioning the systemic nature of the disease.