ABSTRACT
Objective: Vaccination is one of the effective ways to fight against COVID-19 disease. Various vaccines have been designed during the coronavirus pandemic. Each of the used vaccines has beneficial effects as well as side effects. Healthcare workers were among the first vaccinated persons against COVID-19 in different countries. The current study aims to compare the side effects of AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Bharat, and Sputnik V on healthcare workers in Iran. Methods: This descriptive study was conducted from July 2021 to January 2022 on 1639 healthcare workers who received the COVID-19 vaccines. Data were collected using a checklist that contained questions related to systemic, local, and severe side effects of the vaccine. The collected data were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis, Chi-square, and trend chi-square. P < .05 was regarded as a significant statistical difference. Results: The most commonly injected vaccines were Sinopharm (41.80%), Sputnik V (36.65%), AstraZeneca (17.75%), and Bharat (3.80%), respectively. At least 37.5% of participants reported one complication. The most common side effects after 72 hours of the first and second doses were as follows: injection site pain, fatigue, fever, myalgia, headache, and chill. Overall complication rates were reported as follows: AstraZeneca (91.4%), Sputnik V (65.9%), Sinopharm (56.8%), and Bharat (98.4%). Bharat showed the highest overall side effects, while Sinopharm had the lowest overall side effects. Also, our results indicated that individuals with a previous history of positive COVID-19 infection had a higher rate of overall complications. Conclusions: The majority of participants did not show life-threatening side effects after the injection of 1 of the 4 studied vaccines. Since it was well accepted and tolerable by the participants, it can be used widely and safely against SARS-CoV-2.
ABSTRACT
Background and Aims: This study aimed to evaluate the severity of diagnosed lung abnormalities of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients based on the pre-and postrecovery follow-up chest computed tomography (CT) scan findings done at regular intervals. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed in three phases. The severity of lung abnormalities was recorded and compared based on the initial and follow-up chest CT findings carried out pre-and at regular intervals (3 and 6 months) of postrecovery of COVID-19 patients. Statistical data analysis was conducted using SPSS-Version 26. Pearson Chi-square test was used to analyze the results. p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Regarding the initial chest CT findings, although ground-glass opacity (GGO) was observed as the most common lung lesion, almost all the evaluated COVID-19 patients had multiple lung lesions and involvements, especially with more involvement of the lower lobes. concerning the frequency of lung lesions and involvements in all phases of the study, almost no statistically significant differences were observed between male and female COVID-19 patients and different age groups. However, older age groups had relatively more lung abnormalities due to Covid-19 based on initial CT images which take more time to be eliminated. Lung abnormalities of Covid-19 patients decreased significantly during the follow ups based on chest CT findings at different study phases. Conclusion: According to evaluated pre- and post-recovery chest CT scans, the frequency of lung lesions and lung involvement distribution decreased significantly in COVID-19 patients, 3 and 6 months after recovery, and most of the recovered patients had no lung lesions or involvement anymore.