PMID- 34228863
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20210921
LR  - 20221005
IS  - 1742-1241 (Electronic)
IS  - 1368-5031 (Print)
IS  - 1368-5031 (Linking)
VI  - 75
IP  - 10
DP  - 2021 Oct
TI  - Adverse reactions to Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination of healthcare workers at Malta's 
      state hospital.
PG  - e14605
LID - 10.1111/ijcp.14605 [doi]
LID - e14605
AB  - BACKGROUND: The long-term control of COVID-19 depends on an effective global 
      vaccination strategy. Protecting healthcare workers (HCWs) from serious infection 
      is critical. Malta, a European country, initiated the vaccination roll-out using 
      Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine targeting HCWs. This study determined 
      vaccination adverse effects (AEs) in this cohort. METHOD: An online survey was 
      disseminated to all HCWs via work email (29/3/21 to 9/4/21) to gather AEs 
      regarding pain, redness and swelling at injection site, fever, chills, fatigue, 
      muscle/joint pains, headache, vomiting and diarrhoea severity following each dose 
      (Likert scale). Descriptive, comparative and multiple binary regression analyses 
      were performed. RESULTS: A response of 30.30% (n = 1480) was achieved with the 
      commonest AEs being pain at injection site (88.92% CI 95%: 87.21-90.42), mostly 
      mild (51%) and moderate (43%). Fatigue was reported by 72.97% (CI 95%: 
      70.65-75.17), 42% were mild and 41% were moderate. Females reported significantly 
      (P </= .05, respectively) more pain (OR: 1.90), redness (OR: 2.49), swelling at 
      injection site (OR: 1.33), fever (OR: 1.74), chills (OR: 2.32), fatigue (OR: 
      2.43), muscle (OR: 1.54) and joint pains (OR: 2.01), headache (OR: 2.07) and 
      vomiting (OR: 3.43) when adjusted for age and HCW role. Localised AEs were 
      reported following both vaccine doses unlike systemic AEs that were mostly 
      reported after second doses. CONCLUSION: Vaccination benefits outweigh the minor 
      AEs experienced, with females exhibiting a higher susceptibility. The general low 
      vaccination AEs observed within the HCW cohort is encouraging and should help in 
      allaying vaccine hesitancy among the population.
CI  - (c) 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
FAU - Cuschieri, Sarah
AU  - Cuschieri S
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0003-2012-9234
AD  - Faculty of Medicine & Surgery, University of Malta, Msida, Malta.
FAU - Borg, Michael
AU  - Borg M
AD  - Department of Infection Control, Mater Dei Hospital, Msida, Malta.
FAU - Agius, Steve
AU  - Agius S
AD  - Chief Operations Officer, Administration, Mater Dei Hospital, Msida, Malta.
FAU - Souness, Jorgen
AU  - Souness J
AD  - COVID Vaccination Logistics, Mater Dei Hospital, Msida, Malta.
FAU - Brincat, Andre
AU  - Brincat A
AD  - Department of Infection Control, Mater Dei Hospital, Msida, Malta.
FAU - Grech, Victor
AU  - Grech V
AD  - Department of Paediatric, Mater Dei Hospital, Msida, Malta.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20210719
PL  - India
TA  - Int J Clin Pract
JT  - International journal of clinical practice
JID - 9712381
RN  - 0 (COVID-19 Vaccines)
SB  - IM
MH  - *COVID-19
MH  - *COVID-19 Vaccines
MH  - Female
MH  - Health Personnel
MH  - Hospitals, State
MH  - Humans
MH  - Malta
MH  - SARS-CoV-2
MH  - Vaccination/adverse effects
PMC - PMC8420298
COIS- The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
EDAT- 2021/07/07 06:00
MHDA- 2021/09/22 06:00
PMCR- 2021/07/19
CRDT- 2021/07/06 17:28
PHST- 2021/05/25 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2021/07/04 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2021/07/07 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2021/09/22 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2021/07/06 17:28 [entrez]
PHST- 2021/07/19 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - IJCP14605 [pii]
AID - 10.1111/ijcp.14605 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Int J Clin Pract. 2021 Oct;75(10):e14605. doi: 10.1111/ijcp.14605. Epub 2021 Jul 
      19.