ABSTRACT
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic, which began in late 2019 and is still ongoing, has affected health and life across the world. Widespread vaccination with highly effective vaccines is an important tool in the efforts to control this pandemic. To determine post-vaccination symptoms after the first dose of Covishield vaccine among health care workers at a tertiary care centre in Pathanamthitta District. Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study in a tertiary care hospital in Pathanamthitta District. Data on adverse effects following vaccination with the first dose of Covishield vaccine were collected from health care workers through online surveys and interviews. Baseline characteristics were described with frequency, percentages, and mean. Associations between categorical variables were assessed using the Chi-square test. Results: Of the 1,115 health care workers who participated in the study, the majority were medical students (28.3%), followed by nurses (24.8%), and doctors (19.1%). Post-vaccination symptoms were reported by the majority of the participants (95.1%). The most common symptoms were pain at the site of injection (79.8%), followed by myalgia (67.2%), and tiredness (64.6%). Hospitalization was required for six (0.5%) of the participants. Conclusion: The symptoms reported in the study were those already known to be the general side effects associated with vaccines. The information obtained from this study will aid in health promotion activities related to COVID-19 vaccination.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: There is limited data on frontline health-care workers and risk of COVID-19 from the developing nations. It is imperative to identify those at higher risk to prevent further transmission. We assessed the relationship between exposure risk and COVID-19 among front-line health-care workers who were primary contacts of a COVID-19 patient. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted among front-line health-care workers in a tertiary care hospital who were exposed to a COVID-19 patient. Information on demographic factors, medical history, exposure related factors and subsequently COVID-19 lab reports were collected. An exposure risk assessment designed collating various exposure related factors categorized the participants into those with high and low risk. We used logistic regression to estimate the odds ratio of our primary outcome, a positive COVID-19 test when the independent variables were exposure risk, age, gender and occupation. RESULTS: Among1858 frontline workers who were primary contacts of a COVID-19 patient at the hospital, 106 (5.7%) incident reports of a positive COVID-19 test were recorded. None of the exposure related factors had any significant association with a positive COVID-19 test. However, high exposure risk category was significantly associated with COVID-19 positive test at the end of quarantine. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 was more frequent among front-line health-care workers who belonged to high exposure category. Education at different levels of service delivery at hospitals is required for best practice in order to prevent COVID-19 among health care providers. There is need to develop additional strategies to ensure that the information is translated in to practice.