Infection, Reinfection and Post-Vaccination Infection of Sars-Cov-2 in Healthcare Workers at Alsader Teaching Hospital in Maysan Province, Southern Iraq

Covid-19 Infection in Workers

Abstract

A shortage in the number of healthcare workers in Iraq was seen during the Coronavirus pandemic. So the study aims to demonstrate the determinants of COVID-19 infection and reinfection in HCWs and to evaluate the incidence of post-vaccination infection and its contributing factors in healthcare workers at Alsader teaching hospital in Maysan province. The results revealed that the high prevalence of COVID-19 in the study sample was within age groups (41-45 years), they reached their percentage of 26 (26.0%) of HCWs. Also, adults aged 26 to 30 and 31 to 35 represented 19% and 18% of all infected HCWs, respectively. High incidence rates (36.0%) and (23%) were reported in doctors and nurses, respectively. Regarding gender, more than half of the participants were male 51(51.0%). Concerning the weight infected almost two third of the participants in the study sample were weight between 60-69 Kg and 80-89 Kg, the subject of chronic disease 31% of participants had chronic illnesses predominately hypertension and DM. A total of 86 healthcare workers were vaccinated for COVID-19 during the studied period (86% of them have received at least one shot of the vaccine) which was more than those who were not taking vaccines. However, the highest percentage of patients gave preference   to the Pfizer vaccine followed by AstraZeneca and the last one was the Sinopharm vaccine, (56%), (16%) and (14. %), respectively. The results demonstrated that 51% and 27% of infected HCWs in partially and fully vaccinated, respectively. Predominant symptoms before and after the launch of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Iraq include fever (52.0%) followed by headache (50.0%), loss of smell (50.0%), muscle pain (46.0%) and cough (41.0%), The same results were stated in unvaccinated individuals after the launch of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Iraq. Surprisingly we noticed a decline in the percentage of symptoms in each reinfected and post-vaccinated   patient.