ABSTRACT
Background: Vaccination of children against COVID-19 in Iran was conducted for children 5-12 years on July 22, 2021, with PastoCovac and Sinopharm. This study aimed to evaluate the side effects following the administration of vaccines in children.Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was performed on 394 children aged 5-12 years who were referred to health centers in Bojnurd, Iran, and received PastoCoVac or Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines from March to July 2022. After receiving the first dose of the vaccine, in health centers, the children's parents filled out sections of a COVID-19 vaccine questionnaire that included sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of children. After that, other sections of the questionnaire related to side effects following vaccination were filled out by parents of children at different time intervals after receiving the first or second dose of vaccines.Results: Our results showed that the incidence of vaccine side effects in children aged 5-12 years varies between 24%-37%, depending on the type and dose of vaccine. The most common side effects after getting the first and second doses of vaccines were injection site pain and swelling, fever, fatigue, and myalgia. No serious side effects were reported, and almost all side effects were resolved within a few days without special treatment.Conclusion: It can be concluded that the incidence of side effects following COVID-19 vaccination in children aged 5-12 years varies depending on the type and dose of the vaccine. However, no serious side effects were reported, and most were resolved within a few days without special treatment. These findings suggest that the vaccination of children against COVID-19 is generally safe and welltolerated.
ABSTRACT
In the present study, we investigated the association between complement system status at the time of admission and clinical outcomes in COVID-19 patients. This single-center study was carried out with sixty-one adult patients with COVID-19 who were hospitalized at Imam Hassan Hospital of North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences (Bojnurd, Iran) with less than three days passage since onset of COVID-19 symptoms. Twenty-three healthy volunteers with demographic features similar to the patient group (matched by age and gender) were included in the study as a control group. Patient information including demographic information, demographic data, clinical characteristics, and clinical outcomes were obtained from electronic medical records. Of 61 hospitalized patients with COVID-19, 28 (47.54%) were female, and the average age was 48.7+/-8.8 years. The healthy control group included 23 cases (11 (47.8%) female, 12 (52.1%) males, mean age 46.4+/-4.4 years). Twenty-one of the 61 patients (34.4%) were admitted to the ICU, and sixteen of them (26.2%) died. Thirty-three (54.10%) patients with COVID-19 were hospitalized for less than 7 days, and 28 (45.90%) of them were hospitalized for >= 7 days. Our results show that length of hospital stay in the no-ICU group was significantly lower than the ICU admission or death groups (6.49+/-0.24 vs. 8.85+/-1.59 and 10.53+/-1.80, p = 0.0002). The levels of C3, C4, and CH50 were determined through the immunoturbidimetric method and single-radial-haemolysis plates, respectively, on serum samples obtained from patients at the time of admission or those in the control group. Our results indicate that C3, C4 and CH50 levels were markedly lower in COVID-19 patients than in the control group. We also found that complement parameter levels in COVID-19 patients who died or were admitted to ICU were significantly lower than in non-ICU COVID-19 patients. In general, it seems that serum level of C3, C4, and CH50 at admission may predict disease progression or adverse clinical outcome in COVID-19 patients. Copyright © 2022 Saint Petersburg Pasteur Institute. All rights reserved.