INTRODUCTION
In studies conducted on reports of pneumonia cases with unknown etiology in Wuhan, China’s Hubei Province, on 31 December 2019, it was determined that a new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) had not been detected in humans before and that the name of the disease had been accepted as COVID-19. The cases were reported in 113 countries outside of China, where the first epidemic started. It was defined as a global (pandemic) epidemic on 11 March due to the spread and severity of the virus. The first case was detected in our country on 11 March. As in the world, the number of cases in our country has increased day by day (1).
Although the virus is found in the feces and urine of affected individuals, the disease spreads mainly through respiratory droplets (2).
Patients can present with asymptomatic or flu-like symptoms. It may show a different clinical course from pneumonia to respiratory failure and may have a fatal course (3, 4).
Fever, cough, shortness of breath, myalgia and fatigue are most common; sputum, hemoptysis, loss of sense of smell and taste, sore throat, headache, chest pain, diarrhea are also common symptoms of COVID-19 infection (5, 6). In mild cases, symptoms continue for 2 weeks. It goes on for up to 3-6 weeks in severe cases. Symptoms can get worse in a week or so. Approximately 2-8 weeks after the onset of symptoms, deaths were also seen.
The follow-up and care of patients has been arranged according to the COVID-19 guide prepared by the Ministry of Health, General Directorate of Public Health, since the onset of the disease in our country and those with moderate illness at the beginning of the outbreak were hospitalized, and those with serious illness continued to be hospitalized in the subsequent periods. There have also been changes in treatment recommendation. It was found that some symptoms also existed in the outpatient clinic controls.
The aim of our research was to investigate retrospectively the relationship between the symptoms and general characteristics, initial laboratory values and treatments in patients who had Covid 19 and who applied to the chest diseases outpatient clinic for control after 1 month.