COVID-19 is an emerging infectious disease of zoonotic type, caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) strain. This disease, benign in most affected individuals, can in certain situations progress to a severe form with organ failure that may lead to the patients death. The objective was to describe the sociodemographic, clinical, therapeutic, and evolutionary characteristics of the disease in the study population, as well as to determine predictive factors of mortality.This was a retrospective cross-sectional study with descriptive and analytical purposes, conducted over a 2-month period from July 20 to September 20, 2021, among patients with COVID-19 diagnosed at Mohammed V Hospital in Tangier. The study population consisted of 670 patients. The mean age was 49 years ±18.1 and the sex ratio (M/F) was 1.47. COVID-19 diagnosis was essentially based on RT-PCR (87.46%). The majority of patients (67%, n=449) were fully vaccinated at the time of diagnosis. Outpatient follow-up concerned 79.1% (n=530) of patients and hospitalization 20.9% (n=140). The comorbidity rate was 42.5% (n=285), and the most frequent pathologies were diabetes (17.9%) and arterial hypertension (13.43%). The evolution was favorable for the majority of patients (93.58%, n=627) and the death rate was 6.42% (n=43). Factors associated with death were advanced age (p0.001), diabetes (p0.001), arterial hypertension (p=0.007), cardiovascular history (p=0.006), neurological disorders (p=0.012), and non-vaccination (p=0.008). The severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection varies considerably among individuals and populations. Identification of severity factors could help define COVID-19 patients at higher risk, thus enabling a more targeted and specific approach to prevent deaths.
Diop et al. (Tue,) studied this question.