Methods
All patients with confirmed or suspected H1N1 who reported from January 2018 till December 2019 at the Department of Medicine & Allied, Northwest General Hospital & Research Centre (NWGH & RC), Peshawar, Pakistan were recruited to the study.
Participants were enrolled to the study based on early respiratory symptoms and clinical suspicion as assessed by the physician and/or positive results of the rapid real-time polymerase chain reaction. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data on demographics, underlying medical conditions, smoking history, duration of hospital stay, clinical laboratory data, outcome, and personal history. Participants were observed till either death or discharge from the hospital, whichever happened first. Patients were admitted in accordance to the hospital’s admission policy and treated in the isolation rooms meant specifically for either suspected or confirmed patients of H1N1. Blood samples for biochemical analysis were collected on the day of admission. They were all given fever medications, fluid therapy, antivirals, oxygen therapy, as well as noninvasive ventilation and invasive mechanical ventilation as per individual needs.
Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software (version 23; SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA). Distribution of variables was assessed by histograms. Results are expressed as mean (standard deviation SD) and percentage, or frequency for continuous and categorical variable respectively. Comparison of continuous variables was done via the independent Student’s t -test while that of categorical variables was done via the chi-square test. A two-sided P value less than 0.05 was used to show statistical significance.
The hospital ethics committee granted this study ethical approval (Ref#: IRB-EB/NWSM/696/2020). All participants provided informed written consent.