ABSTRACT
Objectives: Immunization is one of the best measures to limit the transition of infectious disease and disease severity. Despite that, vaccination programs are frequently affected by a delay in giving vaccines on time or ignorance and avoidance due to various reasons. Our study aimed to estimate the percentage of vaccination delay in our society and assess the level of parents' awareness about vaccine importance;finally, we will shed light on the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the immunization schedule. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Dawadmi, Saudi Arabia, from May 2022 to August 2022. Data were collected from parents using a structured questionnaire. Vaccinations were considered delayed if they occurred more than 30 days after the designated time. Parents residing outside Dawadmi or older than 65 years were excluded. Results: Among 393 respondents, the majority were mothers, aged between 30-50 years. Overall, 88% adhered to the immunization schedule. Major reasons for delay were forgetting the vaccination date, unavailability of vaccines, and being busy at work. In comparison to the delayed group, parents who adhered to the immunization schedule were aware about its importance. Conclusions: The majority of parents adhered to the immunization schedule. The most common reason was forgetting the vaccine date. Other reasons were the lack of vaccines in Primary Health Care. The commonly delayed vaccines were the 4 and 9-months vaccines. The pandemic affected adherence to vaccination schedules.
ABSTRACT
Background: The severity of lung involvement associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection levels from lack of symptoms or slight pneumonia (in 81%) to excessive disease-associated hypoxia (seen in 14%), a critical disease associated with shock, respiration failure, and multi-organ failure (in 5%) or death (2.3%). Aim: This work aims to determine the prevalence of clinical and radiological manifestations among children and adolescents COVID-19 patients. Materials and Methods: A systematic search was performed over different medical databases to identify Pediatrics studies, which studied the outcome of COVID-19 infection in children and adolescents. Using the meta-analysis process, either with fixed or random-effects models, we conducted a meta-analysis on the prevalence of clinical manifestations (e.g., fever, nasal congestion, cough, dyspnea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and critical cases), as primary outcomes, and on radiological manifestations (e.g., CT involvement - ground-glass opacities), as a secondary outcome. Pooled prevalence of abdominal pain=9.6%, pooled prevalence of critical cases=7.7%. Results: Eight studies were identified involving 682 patients. The meta-analysis process revealed a pooled prevalence of fever=61.1%, a pooled prevalence of nasal congestion=8%, pooled prevalence of cough=49.7%, pooled prevalence of dyspnea=21.4%, pooled prevalence of diarrhea=13.3%, pooled prevalence of critical cases=7.7%. Concerning the secondary outcome measures, the pooled prevalence of CT involvement=41.6%. Conclusion: To conclude, COVID-19 disease cause different manifestations in children such as fever and respiratory symptoms such as cough and dyspnea, organizing pneumonia and decreased pulmonary function.