Over 50 per cent coronavirus patients without fever, research reveals

Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja

Over 50 per cent of patients of the 2019 novel coronavirus admitted to hospitals so far have been found to be without fever, research has revealed.

The Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Nigeria, disclosed this in the March 2, 2020 edition of the “Newsletter on Fighting COVID-19” made available to our correspondent in Abuja.

The findings originally published by the New England Journal of Medicine on its website on February 28, 2020, disclosed that a lot of the coronavirus patients never had abnormal radiologic findings.

Zhong Nanshan, a renowned scientist who headed a government-appointed panel of experts to help control the coronavirus outbreak, led the research, according to China Daily.

The journal further revealed that just 43.8 percent of patients of coronavirus have been discovered to have fever on admission, adding that the ratio rose to 88.7 percent while in the hospital.

The China Daily reported the New England Journal of Medicine to have posted that “Coughs were detected in 67.8 per cent of the patients, making it the most common symptoms alongside fever, and diarrhea was uncommon (3.8 percent).

“Lymphocytopenia was detected in 83.2 per cent of the patients on admission and no radiographic or CT abnormality was found in 157 of 877 patients (17.9 per cent) with mild symptoms and in five of 173 patients (2.9 percent) with severe disease.

“The findings were based on 1,099 novel coronavirus patients scattered across 552 hospitals in 30 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities.”

It added that data were collected beginning from January 29, 2020, even as it stated that the median age of the patients was 47 years, and 41.9 percent of the patients were female.

“The research found that the median incubation period was four days, though the virus was found to have incubated for 24 days in one case.

“The mortality rate was 1.4 percent, and only 1.9 percent of the patients reported direct contact with wildlife. Among non-residents of Wuhan, 72.3 percent had contact with Wuhan people, including 31.3 percent who had visited the city,” China Daily further reported.