Clinical Characteristics of the First 100 Patients of COVID-19 in Tobruk, Libya: A Brief Report From Low-Resource Settings

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to report the clinical features of a cohort of patients with suspected COVID-19 from Tobruk, Libya and reflect upon the diagnosis challenge in low-resource settings. METHODS: A descriptive report of the first 100 patients with suspected COVID-19 who have visited the SARS-Cov-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-related Coronavirus-2) (COVID-19) screening clinic at the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in Tobruk, Libya. RESULTS: The most common presenting symptoms were fever (90%), cough (89%), dyspnoea (85%), sore throat (79%), fatigue (78%), headache (64%), loss of smell (52%), loss of taste (53%), loss of appetite (43), nausea and vomiting (26%), diarrhoea (22%), and rhinorrhea (16%). 51% of the patients had lymphocytopenia while 13% had thrombocytopenia. Bilateral infiltrates was the most common radiologic finding on chest X-ray (76%), and COVID-19 IgM and /or IgG antibodies were detected in 80% of the patients, while only 37% of the patients were tested positive by the RT-PCR. CONCLUSIONS: The disease continued its spread across the region. Fever, cough and dyspnoea were the main symptoms. 21% of the patients did not have any CXR abnormalities. Initial negative results for either antibody testing or RT-PCR-testing for COVID-19 do not rule out the infection.