Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients infected with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 in Bobo-Dioulasso from december 2021 to march 2022.

Abstract

Introduction: To determine the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients infected with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 in Bobo Dioulasso. Patients and method: This was a study with retrospective data collection covering the period from December 11, 2021 to March 31, 2022. Patients who tested positive for Covid-19 PCR, had benefited from viral variant characterization and whose results were interpretable were included. Results: One hundred and ninety-eight patients were included in the study. Of these, 90 were infected with different variants of the wild-type virus, including 71% with the Omicron variant. The mean age was 48.4 ± 19.9 years, with extremes [15 to 90 years]. Only 19% of patients infected with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 had at least one history of comorbidity. A history of cardiovascular disease was the most frequent comorbidity (11.9%). Symptomatic patients numbered 67.8. These included cough (52.4%), asthenia (42.9%), fever (40.5%) and headache (40.5%). Approximately 13% (11/84) of patients were hospitalized (13.1%), with an average length of stay of 4.1±2.2 days. Conclusion: This study confirms the presence of the Omicron variant in Bobo-Dioulasso. Our study revealed a high frequency of this germ. The cases were young adults with poor hand hygiene. The majority were symptomatic. This justifies the need for ongoing molecular surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 infection.