Convalescence: An aspect of Health Care Delivery that has been overlooked in Uganda

Convalescence is defined by McHraw-Hill disctionary of scientific and technical terms as the period and process of recovery from an illness or injury. It forms a very important aspect in the health status of an individual. In the more developed countries; convalescing facilities exist; and are known in different forms; either as homes for the aged; sanatoriums or nursing homes. Nursing home are care refers to the out-of-home care facilities that offer a range from services similar to those in hospitals released patients earlier in efforts to contain costs. There is a high chance that similar practices can occur in developing countries. In Uganda; this is usually translated into sick-offs; given by the practitioners to their patients

Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the first cohort of COVID-19 recoveries at two national treatment centres in Accra, Ghana

Introduction:COVID-19 is a new disease, knowledge on the mode of transmission and clinical features are still evolving, new tests are being developed with inherent challenges regarding interpretation of tests results. There is generally, a gap in knowledge on the virus globally as the pandemic evolves and in Ghana, there is dearth of information and documentation on the clinical characteristics of the virus. With these in mind, we set out to profile the initial cohort of COVID-19 patients who recovered in Ghana. Methods: We reviewed clinical records of all confirmed cases of COVID-19 who had recovered from the two main treatment centres in Accra, Ghana. Descriptive data analysis was employed and presented in simple and relational tables. Independent t-test and ANOVA were used to determine differences in the mean age of the sexes and the number of days taken for the first and second retesting to be done per selected patient characteristics. Results: Of the 146 records reviewed, 54% were male; mean age of patients was 41.9 ± 17.5 years, nearly half were asymptomatic, with 9% being severely ill. The commonest presenting symptoms were cough (22.6%), headache (13%) and sore throat (11%) while the commonest co-morbidities were hypertension (25.3%), diabetes mellitus (14%) and heart disease (3.4%). Conclusion: COVID-19 affected more males than females; nearly half of those infected were asymptomatic. Cough, headache and sore throat were the commonest symptoms and mean duration from case confirmation to full recovery was 19 days. Further research is required as pandemic evolves