Clinical Manifestations of Covid-19 Disease: Exploring the Experiences of Infected Health-care Providers

Covid-19 is a novel disease with many unknown clinical and managemental dimensions. To effectively diagnose, control, and treat the disease, it is required to divulge its clinical symptoms and their qualities. On the other hand, no one can better interpret the clinical symptoms than the caregivers infected by the disease. So, the aim of this study was to exploring the experiences of infected health-care providers about clinical manifestations of Covid-19 disease.

The present qualitative research was conducted using the conventional content analysis method in Iran from March to Jun 2020. Participants in this study included 18 infected health care providers with Covid-19, who were selected based on purposeful sampling method. The data was collected by phone call interviews and analyzed according Lundman and Graneheim approach.

Qualitative data analysis revealed 10 categories including respiratory disorders, fever and chills, body pain, fatigue, headache, skin disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, taste and olfactory disturbances, insomnia and also stress and anxiety. Patients with Covid-19 may experience specific or non-specific disorders. It is necessary to consider people with non-specific manifestations as suspicious cases and screen them with proper diagnostic tests. This can help to identify true positive patients and provide them with more effective health cares, and prevent further spread of the disease by isolating suspected individuals.