Environmental News Network - COVID-19 May Have Been in L.A. as Early as Last December, UCLA-Led Study Suggests

Details: By University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences; 10.Sep

UCLA researchers and colleagues who analyzed electronic health records found that there was a significant increase in patients with coughs and acute respiratory failure at UCLA Health hospitals and clinics beginning in late December 2019, suggesting that COVID-19 may have been circulating in the area months before the first definitive cases in the U.S. were identified.

Julie Swatson

UCLA researchers and colleagues who analyzed electronic health records found that there was a significant increase in patients with coughs and acute respiratory failure at UCLA Health hospitals and clinics beginning in late December 2019, suggesting that COVID-19 may have been circulating in the area months before the first definitive cases in the U.S. were identified.

This sudden spike in patients with these symptoms, which continued through February 2020, represents an unexpected 50% increase in such cases when compared with the same time period in each of the previous five years.

The findings, the study authors say, demonstrate the importance of analyzing electronic health records to monitor and quickly identify irregular changes in patient populations. The researchers’ novel approach, in which they focused not only on hospitalization data but also on data from outpatient settings, may help epidemiologists and health systems detect future epidemics sooner.

The study appears in the peer-reviewed Journal of Medical Internet Research.

Photo Credit: Anestiev via Pixabay

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COVID-19 May Have Been in L.A. as Early as Last December, UCLA-Led Study Suggests