International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | September 2021 | Vol 8 | Issue 9 Page 4463 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Mishra AK et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2021 Sep;8(9):4463-4469 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Prevalence of COVID symptoms, their severity and duration: a gender based analysis Abhishek Kumar Mishra*, Chhaya Mittal, Tanveer Bano, Arun Kumar, Ganesh Singh, Anglica Kanaujia, Niharika Verma INTRODUCTION COVID-19 is the most import public health problem of recent time. It is the disease caused by a new corona virus called SARS-CoV-2. Corona viruses are a large family of viruses which may cause illness in animals or humans. In humans, several corona viruses are known to cause respiratory infections ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The most recently discovered corona virus causes corona virus disease COVID-19. 1 Very little is known regarding percentage of people who remain asymptomatic or develop symptoms. In this regard as per one evaluation of records in China approximately 60% of patients develop symptoms. 2 ABSTRACT Background: COVID -19 is the most important public health problem of recent time. Approximately (60%) of those infected develop symptoms. Study is needed to assess the prevalence of COVID-19 symptoms, their severity and duration, secondary attack rate and COVID-19 appropriate behaviour for prevention and control of infection. The aim was to assess the prevalence of COVID-19 symptoms, secondary attack rate and COVID-19 appropriate behaviour of infected person. Methods: Present cross sectional study was done among patients who recovered from COVID-19 in Meerut district. After obtaining mobile numbers of patients, they were asked about their experience about pre-COVID, COVID and post-COVID period. Total 100 patients were contacted using simple random sampling and information was collected on predesigned Google form. Results: Out of total respondents 98% developed one or more symptoms. Fever was reported to be most common problem (72%) followed by body ache (62%). Most classified their symptoms as mild and moderate (36% and 43% respectively). There was no statistically significant difference for duration and severity of illness based on gender. While 21% categorized their symptoms as severe and very severe. All 100% patients followed COVID-19 appropriate behaviour post infection frequent hand washing and use of sanitizer being the most common behaviour (79%). Other commonly followed COVID-19 appropriate behaviours were use of face mask (68%), maintaining distance of more than 6 feet (65%). Conclusions: COVID-19 symptoms are common among patients but are usually less severe. Most of the patients are following COVID-19 appropriate behaviour to lessen burden of infection to others. Results also highlight the need of early testing to reduce infection in family members. Keywords: COVID-19, Post COVID symptoms, Cross sectional study, nCoV, SAR Department of Community Medicine, L. L. R. M. Medical College, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India Received: 12 July 2021 Accepted: 21 August 2021 *Correspondence: Dr. Abhishek Kumar Mishra, E-mail: drabhishekmishra@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20213553