Burden of acute and long-term COVID-19: A nationwide study in Bahrain

Murad, Mariam; Atkin, Stephen L; Wasif, Pearl; Behzad, Alwaleed Abdulaziz; Husain, Aamal M J Abdulla; Leahy, Roisin; d’Hellencourt, Florence Lefebvre; Joury, Jean; Abdel Aziz, Mohamed; Valluri, Srinivas Rao; Haridy, Hammam; Spinardi, Julia; Kyaw, Moe H; Al-Qahtani, Manaf

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2025.1539453

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health

Sec. Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Prevention

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1539453

This article is part of the Research Topic Post-Acute COVID Rehabilitation View all 8 articles

Burden of acute and long-term COVID-19: A nationwide study in Bahrain

Provisionally accepted

Mariam Murad ^1*

Stephen L Atkin ¹

Pearl Wasif ¹

Alwaleed Abdulaziz Behzad ²

Aamal M J Abdulla Husain ³

Roisin Leahy ⁴

Florence Lefebvre d’Hellencourt ⁵

Jean Joury ⁶

Mohamed Abdel Aziz ⁶

Srinivas Rao Valluri ⁵

Hammam Haridy ⁶

Julia Spinardi ⁷

Moe H Kyaw ⁵

Manaf Al-Qahtani ⁸

¹ Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (Bahrain), Al Muharraq, Bahrain
² Salmaniya Medical Complex, Manama, Bahrain
³ Primary Health Care Center, Kingdom of Bahrain, Manama, Bahrain
⁴ Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
⁵ Pfizer Inc, NY, USA, New York, United States
⁶ Pfizer Gulf FZ LLC, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
⁷ Pfizer (Brazil), Sao Paula, Brazil
⁸ Bahrain Defence Force Royal Medical Services Military Hospital, West Riffa, Bahrain

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may lead to long term sequalae. This study aimed to understand the acute and post-acute burden of SARS-CoV-2 infection and to identify high-risk groups for post COVID-19 conditions (PCC). Methods: A retrospective, observational database study of the Bahraini population between 01-May-2021 and 30-April-2023 utilizing the National administrative database. PCC cases were defined using WHO guidelines. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) confirmed all COVID-19 cases. Results: Of 13,067 COVID-19 cases, 12,022 had acute COVID-19 and 1,045 had PCC. PCC individuals were older, female with risk factors, and SARS-CoV-2 reinfection.

Keywords: SAR-CoV-2, COVID-19, long COVID-19 disease, respiratory disease, Pneumonia

Received: 04 Dec 2024; Accepted: 24 Feb 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Murad, Atkin, Wasif, Behzad, Husain, Leahy, d’Hellencourt, Joury, Abdel Aziz, Valluri, Haridy, Spinardi, Kyaw and Al-Qahtani. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Mariam Murad, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (Bahrain), Al Muharraq, Bahrain

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