Introduction
Starting in late December 2019, several patients with acute respiratory
illnesses raised in China. On January 7th, the Chinese
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared that a novel
coronavirus, SARS-COV-2*, was detected from the throat
swab sample of one of their patients. Presenting mainly with respiratory
symptoms, the disease was subsequently called Coronavirus disease
(COVID-19) by the World Health Organization (WHO) (Adalja, Toner, &
Inglesby, 2020; N. Chen et al., 2020; Diao et al., 2020). The rapid
emergence of COVID-19 led WHO authorities to announce pandemic on late
march 2020 (”WHO Pandemic declaration (April 17th 2020)
https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19—11-march-2020
”). By May 5th, confirmed cases outreached 3,747,292
from 212 countries with overall 258,962 death (”Worldometers (April 29th
2020) Number of affected COVID-19 worldwide
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries,”). Infections
with novel coronavirus manifest as fever, nonproductive cough, dyspnea,
myalgia, fatigue, anorexia, anosmia, lymphopenia, and evidence of
pneumonia on radiographic studies. Symptoms’ severity could range from
mild self-limiting symptoms to severe pneumonia, acute respiratory
distress syndrome (ARDS), or multiple organ failure (X. Chen et al.,
2020).
Although Iran is among the top countries with exceeding the number of
COVID-19 cases since March 2020, few reports are available on the
clinical picture, management, and ultimate disease course of our
patients. By this case series, we aim to describe the epidemiologic
features alongside the clinical presentations, and outcomes from 354
patients with confirmed COVID-19 in Iran.
* severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2