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Clinical characteristics of 154 patients suspected of having Ebola virus disease in the Ebola holding center of Jui Government Hospital in Sierra Leone during the 2014 Ebola outbreak

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Abstract

This article sought to analyze the clinical features of 154 patients suspected of having Ebola virus disease (EVD) in an Ebola holding center in Sierra Leone from October 1 through November 9, 2014. We found that 108 of the 154 patients were confirmed with EVD. Eighty-five had known outcomes. Forty-nine of the 85 patients had been exposed to EVD. The average mortality rate was 60 %. The mean interval between the onset of symptoms and hospitalization was 5.8 ± 3.3 days. The mean incubation period was 9.2 ± 6.7 days. Common symptoms of the EVD patients on admission were fatigue (85.2 %), anorexia (84.3 %), fever (75.9 %), and headache (72.2 %). Our data showed that the total symptoms of confirmed EVD patients were significantly higher than those of non-EVD patients (9 vs. 5.5; p < 0.001). The likelihood of EVD was 87.6 % when a patient presented more than 6 out of 21 symptoms on admission. The survivors were significantly younger than non-survivors (24.0 ± 10.0 years vs. 31.3 ± 15.3 years; p = 0.016). The real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis showed that, in the survivors, the virus load was significantly lower (Ct value: 25.2 ± 4.1 vs. 28.7 ± 5.7; p = 0.002). Multivariate analysis showed that age, fever, and viral load were independent predictors of mortality. Taken together, our data suggested that a cutoff of six symptoms could be used to predict patients with high or low risk of EVD. It seemed that age, fever, and viral load were the main risk factors associated with EVD mortality.

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The authors declare no financial or commercial conflict of interest.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. International Liver Disease Diagnosis and Treatment Center, 302 Military Hospital, 100 West 4th Ring Middle Road, Beijing, 100039, China

      T. Yan

    2. Intensive Care Center, 302 Military Hospital, 100 West 4th Ring Middle Road, Beijing, 100039, China

      J. Mu & S. Chen

    3. Infectious Disease Treatment and Research Center, 302 Military Hospital, 100 West 4th Ring Middle Road, Beijing, 100039, China

      E. Qin & D. Wu

    4. Outpatient Department, 302 Military Hospital, 100 West 4th Ring Middle Road, Beijing, 100039, China

      Y. Wang & Y. Qin

    5. Radiotherapy Center, 302 Military Hospital, 100 West 4th Ring Middle Road, Beijing, 100039, China

      L. Liu

    6. Hospital Infection Control Department, 302 Military Hospital, 100 West 4th Ring Middle Road, Beijing, 100039, China

      H. Jia

    7. Liver and Gall Surgical Department, 302 Military Hospital, 100 West 4th Ring Middle Road, Beijing, 100039, China

      Z. Li & Y. Wu

    8. Clinical Laboratory Center, 302 Military Hospital, 100 West 4th Ring Middle Road, Beijing, 100039, China

      T. Guo

    9. Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, 302 Military Hospital, 100 West 4th Ring Middle Road, Beijing, 100039, China

      X. Wang

    10. Nursing Department, 302 Military Hospital, 100 West 4th Ring Middle Road, Beijing, 100039, China

      Y. Li, Y. Zhang & J. Zhang

    11. Information Department, 302 Military Hospital, 100 West 4th Ring Middle Road, Beijing, 100039, China

      S. Wang

    12. Administration Office, 302 Military Hospital, 100 West 4th Ring Middle Road, Beijing, 100039, China

      J. Li

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    1. T. Yan
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    Correspondence to J. Li.

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    T. Yan and J. Mu contributed equally to this work.

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    Yan, T., Mu, J., Qin, E. et al. Clinical characteristics of 154 patients suspected of having Ebola virus disease in the Ebola holding center of Jui Government Hospital in Sierra Leone during the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 34, 2089–2095 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-015-2457-z

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-015-2457-z

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