Adverse events following the COVID-19 Vaccination reported in Nepal and experiences of the vaccination: A retro-prospective study



Information regarding AEFI experience is being collected through an online questionnaire survey among people who have been vaccinated against SARS-COV-2.


2021


Collaboration with the Family Welfare Division of DOHS and MoHP.


All (Nationwide)


After the declaration of SARS-CoV-2 infection as a pandemic by the World Health Organization in (WHO) March 11, 2020, there has been an extensive influence on health, crippling the health system worldwide by causing significant mortality among older adults and those with pre-existing health conditions. Despite the global spread of the virus, a large proportion of the population in many countries is thought to have escaped infection and remains non-immune to SARS-CoV-2 necessitating the urgent need for a vaccine that could help control the pandemic. Vaccines could play an important role in increasing population immunity, preventing severe disease, and reducing the ongoing health crisis. Of the 48 vaccines currently under clinical evaluation, several have shown good safety and immunogenicity. The ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine (AZD1222) was developed at Oxford University and consists of a replication-deficient chimpanzee adenoviral vector ChAdOx1, containing the SARS-CoV-2 structural surface glycoprotein antigen (spike protein; nCoV-19) gene. A result of an interim analysis of four randomized controlled trials suggested that ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 has an acceptable safety profile and is efficacious against symptomatic COVID-19, with no hospital admissions or severe cases reported in the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 arm. COVISHIELD™ (manufactured by Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd) and COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca (manufactured by AstraZeneca) are ChAdOx1 nCoV- 19 Corona Virus Vaccines (Recombinant). An adverse event following immunization (AEFI) is any untoward medical occurrence that follows immunization, and which does not necessarily have a causal relationship with the usage of the vaccine. The adverse event may be any unfavorable or unintended sign, abnormal laboratory finding, symptom or disease. The very common adverse events reported were inflammation in the injection site, feeling unwell, fatigue, fever, chills, headache, nausea, joint pain or muscle ache. Besides that, feeling dizzy, flulike symptoms feeling dizzy, loss of appetite, abdominal pain, enlarged lymph nodes, excessive sweating and itchy skin or rashes were other reported symptoms.

Up to 29th of January 2021, 480 out of 937,338 doses administered reported AEFI in Canada. According to the Canadian government, out of 480 AEFI cases, 412 cases were none-severe whereas the remaining were serious AEFI cases. As of February 5, 158,487 frontline workers have already been vaccinated in Nepal, but the data on AEFI is scarce.


  • To explore all the adverse events that occurred following the COVID-19 vaccination.
  • To identify the occurrence of serious adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination.
  • To evaluate the socio-demographic factors, comorbidities, and history of COVID-19 infection associated with AEFI following COVID-19 vaccination.
  • To discern the perception of first-line health workers regarding immunization.

 


Understand and communicate the immunization-related issues among the population who received Covishield vaccine at the first phase of vaccine roll out program in Nepal. To help prevent untoward effects of the vaccine, specifically rare events.