• Prabin Khatri, Aryan Neupane, Ashish Banjade, Ashmita Chhetri, Dipesh Sharma, Pradip Chhetri, Pramila Thapa, Nasatya Khadka, Saugat Karki, and Srijana Neupane.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Universal College of Medical Sciences, Bhairahawa, Nepal.
• JNMA J Nepal Med Assoc. 2021 Oct 15; 59 (242): 987-991.

IntroductionCOVID-19 has a wide spectrum of clinical presentation ranging from asymptomatic infection to acute respiratory distress syndrome and multi organ dysfunction. Data regarding this is scarce in our setting. This study aims to study the prevalence of fever in confirmed COVID-19 cases in a tertiary care hospital of western Nepal.MethodsWe conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study among patients admitted to COVID-19 wards and intensive care units of a tertiary care hospital. We enrolled patients from August 2020 to January 2021 and the study proposal was approved by the Institutional Review Committee (reference number: 069/20). Convenience sampling method was used. Data entry and descriptive analysis were done in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 16.0. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and descriptive statistics.ResultsAmong 206 cases of COVID-19, the most common symptom was fever 136 (66.1%) (95% Confidence Interval= 58.14.63-74.05). Sixty-seven (49.3%) of those with fever required intensive care units admission whereas 27 (19.9%) of patients with fever had mortality. Most common comorbidities in the patient having fever is Diabetes mellitus 41 (66.1%) followed by hypertension 20 (62.5%).ConclusionsFever was the most common presenting complaint with high prevalence as compared to similar studies done in similar settings. We stress the importance of considering the presence of COVID-19 even in the absence of fever as many patients presented without fever.

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