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Introduction: During the initial weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was limited information and evidence about therapeutic interventions for management of COVID-19 infections. Consequently, fever clinics were established in Saudi Arabia to provide supportive treatment for all COVID-19 patients as specialised clinics. During the early months of 2020, Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) was being used as part of the Saudi Ministry of Health (MoH) protocol for management of COVID-19 infections. Aim: To report the experience with implementing fever clinic utilising the HCQ-based protocol for adults with mild and moderate symptoms of COVID-19, and provide further evidence regarding the efficacy and safety of HCQ. Materials and Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted in one of the primary healthcare centres in Saudi Arabia. All patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 who visited the fever clinic and met the eligibility criteria of starting HCQ based protocol were included in the study. Beside supportive treatment, the intervention dose of HCQ was 400 mg twice a day for one day followed by 200 mg twice a day for another four days. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 was used for data analyses. Results: A total of 108 patients with mean age of 36 years with Standard Deviation (SD) of 9.3 were included in the study. The mean Body Mass Index (BMI) was 27.1 (SD 4.9). In addition, 73.1% of the patients were males and 25% were smokers. The study findings showed that the fever clinic was effective in managing the symptoms of COVID-19 and treating the patients regardless of the use of or completion of HCQ. In particular, on day 6, cough improved in >85% of the patients and fever was resolved in >83% of patients. However, there were no statistically significant differences among the patients who received/completed HCQ and those who did not start or complete the protocol in terms of negative conversion based on the Nasopharyngeal (NP) swab real-time Reverse-Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RTPCR) by day 14, and resolution/improvement of symptoms on day 6 (p>0.05). Conclusion: This study documented the experience of implementing a fever clinic to manage the suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate symptoms during the initial phase of the pandemic in Saudi Arabia. The study findings revealed that the concept of fever clinics was useful for managing suspected and confirmed cases. At the same time, there were no additional benefits of HCQ compared to the supportive treatment in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Saudi Medical Journal is the property of Saudi Medical Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Patients with diabetes have a higher risk of severe infection and mortality due to COVID-19. Considering the current limited effective pharmacological treatments, vaccination remains one of the most effective means to control the pandemic. The current study aimed to determine the prevalence of COVID-19 infection and the rate of COVID-19 vaccination coverage among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The patients were identified from a diabetes hospital registry at Prince Sultan Military Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in July 2021. The history of COVID-19 infection and the vaccination status were retrieved from the National Health Electronic Surveillance Network (HESN) program and the Seha platform, respectively. A total of 11,573 patients were included in this study (representing 99.5% of all patients in the registry). A total of 1981 patients (17.1%) had a history of confirmed COVID-19 infection. The rate of vaccination with a 1st dose was 84.8% (n = 9811), while the rate of full vaccination with the 2nd dose was 55.5% (n = 6422). The analysis showed that a higher proportion of male patients were fully vaccinated than female patients (61.0% versus 51.2%, p < 0.001). There were statistically significant differences among the age groups, with the full vaccination rate ranging from 59.0% for the 61–70-year-old age group to 49.0% for the > 80-year-old age group (p < 0.001). The patients with no previous history of COVID-19 infection were more likely to get fully vaccinated than those with a previous history of the infection (63.9% versus 14.6%, respectively, p < 0.001). The factors associated with a higher likelihood of unvaccinated status included the female gender (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 1.705 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.528–1.902)), elderly patients in the age group of 61–70 (aOR (95% CI) = 1.390 (1.102–1.753)), the age group of 71–80 (aOR (95% CI) = 1.924 (1.499–2.470)) and the age group of >80 (aOR (95% CI) = 3.081 (2.252–4.214), and prior history of COVID-19 infection (aOR (95% CI) = 2.501 (2.223–2.813)). In conclusion, a considerable proportion of patients with type 2 diabetes had confirmed COVID-19 infection. Continued targeted efforts are needed to accelerate vaccination coverage rates among patients with diabetes in general and the particular subgroups identified in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]