Abstract

COVID-19 IN ADULTS: CLINICAL FINDINGS

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a zoonotic viral infection that has been identified for the first time in China with a high pathogenicity. COVID-19 has a wide spectrum of clinic including asymptomatic infection, mild upper respiratory disease, respiratory failure due to severe viral pneumonia, and even death. World Health Organization reported the fatality rate as 3.8% according to COVID-19 report. In the study, in which 72 314 cases were included in China, 81% of the cases were evaluated as mild, 14% as serious and 5% as critical, and no deaths were reported in the age group of nine and under. However, the case-fatality rate is 70% for cases 70-79 years old and 14.8% for cases 80 and older. It has been reported that the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 in children are similar to adults or are generally milder than adults. It has been reported in the current guideline of the T.R. Ministry of Health that pregnancy does not pose any additional risk for severe course COVID-19. Although the main symptoms of the disease are fever and cough, patients may have headache, conjunctival hyperemia, nasal congestion, sore throat, increased secretion, sputum, malaise, hemoptysis, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, myalgia, rash, taste and smell disorder. Hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, chronic lung disease, all malignancies especially hematological, immunosuppressive therapy or disease, organ transplantation, chronic kidney failure, obesity, smoking are among the risk factors for mortality. Decrease in lymphocyte and fibrinogen count and liver-kidney function tests, troponin I, D-Dimer, lactate dehydrogenase, prothrombin time, creatinine phosphokinase, C-reactive protein, ferritin, interleukin-6 height may lead the clinician as poor prognosis markers. The aim of this review is to evaluate the clinical findings of COVID-19 infection in adults with current literature.