The COVID-19 pandemic emerged in December 2019 [1–2] was a global health tragedy [3]. As of January 26, 2024, at 14:24 GMT, global COVID-19 cases were 702,382,516, with 6,973,669 deaths and 673,244,612 recoveries [4]. The same source has indicated that the number of cases in Ethiopia stood at 501,117, with 7,574 reported deaths and 488,171 recoveries. The virus, named severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), primarily targets various cells within the respiratory tract and rapidly transmits through cell-to-cell transmission [5–7] with varying degrees of disease severity among affected individuals [8]. While the majority of infections are asymptomatic or mild, a significant proportion develops a severe form of the disease requiring hospitalization and oxygen support [9]. Severe cases can lead to multiple organ failure [10]. Details of the virus’s biology, pathogenesis and epidemiology are reviewed elsewhere [11–15].
The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched its transition plan for COVID-19, as communicated in a news release on June 12, 2023 [16]. While COVID-19 is no longer classified as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, it is important to acknowledge that the pandemic is still ongoing, even as we enter its fourth year. There is a consensus that the international public health emergency may have ended, but the pandemic itself is far from over. Though the number of hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 has significantly decreased due to increased population immunity, the virus continues to circulate widely, and the threat is still present. Moreover, despite the progress made, global disparities persist, and there are still substantial gaps in our knowledge that need to be addressed.
Furthermore, there remains a genuine risk of new variants emerging, which could potentially be more transmissible and/or more severe [17]. This underscores the need for ongoing surveillance efforts and the identification of risk factors. Additionally, while efforts to control infections have relaxed to some extent, the long-term health consequences of infection and reinfection for individuals and populations are still poorly understood. The estimated number of people experiencing Post-COVID-19 Condition (‘Long COVID’) reached 17 million in the first two years of the pandemic [18].
Overall, as the world transitions into a new phase, post-COVID, the WHO recommends there is a need to integrate COVID-19 control measures into broader prevention and control programs. The transition plan outlined by the WHO provides guidance on how COVID-19 activities should be managed and integrated within the proposed global health architecture for Health Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Resilience. One of the key components of this plan is community protection throughout the emergency cycle, empowering communities to make informed decisions and adopt measures that safeguard their health during crises. This necessitates risk profiling, particularly in identifying individuals at higher risk of severe disease, reinfection, or long-term complications. Therefore, there is a valid rationale for conducting research and publishing findings including data collected and unpublished during the pandemic on risk factors associated with severe COVID-19 disease, even as we enter the post-COVID era and the international public health emergency is no longer in effect.
Although specific factors such as biological age and comorbidities are identified as established risk factors for severe illness and mortality [19–21], other potential predictors of severe disease among COVID-19 patients like intestinal parasite infection and liver biochemical enzymes remain under investigated. This paper reports finding on the association between socio-demographic characteristics, clinical profile, and intestinal parasite carriage with disease severity among COVID-19 cases at St. Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College (SPHMMC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The associations between socio-demographic characteristics, clinical profile, and intestinal parasite carriage with disease severity will provide valuable insights for targeted interventions, risk stratification strategies, and resource allocation to optimize patient care and management.