Differential diagnosis of COVID-19 in symptomatic patients at the University Hospital Center Mohammed VI, Marrakesh

INTRODUCTION: coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 was first reported in Wuhan, China. Clinical spectrum of this disease has nonspecific symptoms shared by many other frequent infectious diseases of the respiratory tract and other respiratory tract diseases. This study explains the importance of differential diagnosis between COVID-19 and other lung diseases. METHODS: we analyzed in this study, the demographic features, clinical presentations, laboratory data and radiologic findings of the COVID-19 patients in comparison to those with other respiratory infections or diseases. RESULTS: the mean age of all patients was 38.04 years; 35 patients were later confirmed to be positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection. The most common symptoms reported by both groups included nonproductive cough and myalgia. Two of the non-COVID-19 patients were having below 92% oxygen saturation and low systolic blood pressure. The patients shared relatively similar laboratory findings except 3% of the non-COVID-19 patients who had lympho-neutropenia and 22.6% had high levels of C-reactive protein. Pulmonary tuberculosis and autoimmune disease respiratory disorder were suspected in 2 of the non-COVID-19 patients respectively. CONCLUSION: we emphasize the importance of good screening protocols, rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 and other most common respiratory pathogens, which may help for a better control of COVID-19 spread and avoid delayed care of other lung diseases.