2157 Vol. 73, No. 11, November 2023 Open Access Introduction In December 2019, the city of Wuhan in China witnessed a rise in patients with mild pneumonia the aetiology of which remained unknown. Upon closer inspection, the symptoms of the afflicted patients were attributed to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS- CoV-2). 1 The spike in cases at the time signalled an epidemic, which rapidly progressed to a global pandemic spanning affecting all countries across the globe. 2 According to global data, as of February, 2022, SARS-CoV- 2 had affected 414,018,063 individuals across the world, out of whom 5,845,051 had died. In Pakistan, 1,488,958 people were affected, and 29,828 had died. 3 The spread of the virus was due to close contact with an infected person, and could enter the human body and subsequently the lungs through inhalation of respiratory droplets or direct contact. 4 Since its onset, coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) posed a massive challenge. 5 Although vaccines were effective in reducing hospitalisations and fatality in patients with COVID-19, the recommended key strategy for controlling the spread remained diligent isolation and quarantine. According to the guidelines issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO), practising good hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette, maintaining social distancing, avoiding contact with eyes, nose and mouth, and self-isolation were the key measures of controlling the spread. 6 While most of the above-mentioned recommendations helped reduce the risk of getting infected on a personal level, self-isolation could lead to broad-scale benefts. Isolation is defned as the separation of an infected individual for a minimum of 14 days, after which the infection likely clears 7 although updated guidelines from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended a shortened isolation period of 5 days. 8 This helped avoid close contact with the non-infected population, thereby limiting transmission. This was in concordance with the lessons learned from the previous SARS outbreak, which suggested that self-isolation could lead to a reduced spread of infection. 9 However, Feng et al. 10 reported that home-isolation was associated with a high risk of transmission to household members. Therefore, it was essential for COVID-19-positive individuals to strictly follow guidelines related to home-isolation. As the number of cases continued to rise, Pakistan faced a shortage of hospital beds, and, therefore, mild/ RESEARCH ARTICLE Home Isolated COVID-19 patients adhering to recommended guidelines: A cross sectional survey in Karachi Shobha Luxmi 1 , Munazza Obaid 2 , Sadaf Zia 3 , Fatima Zulfqar Siddiqui 4 , Musfrah Danyal Barry 5 , Saba Zaheer 6 , Faiza Zakaria 7 Abstract Objective: To assess compliance level of coronavirus disease-2019 patients with recommended isolation guidelines. Methods: The cross-sectional phone-based survey was conducted in Karachi, from March to October 2020 after approval from the ethics review board of Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, and comprised patients of either gender who had been tested positive and were advised home isolation due to mild/asymptomatic nature of their infection. Data was collected using a predesigned 42-item questionnaire in the light of the guidelines issued by the National Institutes of Health, Islamabad, Pakistan. Data was analysed using SPSS 20. Results: Of the 450 patients approached, 305(68%) responded; 176(57.7%) females and 129(41.1%) males. The overall mean age was 35.16±14.15 years (range: 13-78 years). Of the total, 9(2.95%) patients did not isolate themselves at all, 51(16.7%) came into contact with other people, 75(24.6%) broke the home isolation and 69(22.6%) were sharing their rooms with other family members. Overall, 260(85.2%) participants were keeping themselves updated with the changes in the guidelines through conventional and social media. Conclusion: Coronavirus disease-2019 patients who were advised home isolation adhered to some but not all of the recommendations. Keywords: COVID-19, Home isolation, Protective measures, Home management, SARS-CoV-2. (JPMA 73: 2157; 2023) DOI: https://doi.org/10.47391/JPMA.6821 1 Department of Infectious Disease, Dow International Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan; 2 Department of Community Medicine, Dow International Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan; 3 Department of ENT, Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan; 4-7 Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan. Correspondence: Shobha Luxmi. e-mail: smukeshwadhwani@gmail.com ORCID ID. 0000-0002-0117-3048