Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Related Coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov2) Infection Among Doctors and Nurses After Introduction of Vaccination - A Tertiary Care Experience from Mumbai
Main Article Content
Abstract
Introduction :
Acute Respiratory Syndrome related Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) is a novel Coronavirus causing the current pandemic. Among all the efforts to curtail the pandemic, vaccination is an important pillar towards halting transmission and reducing morbidity and mortality due to this disease. SARS-CoV2 has affected healthcare professionals (HCPs) globally . HCPs were a priority group that was vaccinated in the first phase in India. No vaccine is 100% effective. The effectiveness of the SARS-CoV2 vaccine in this high risk group needs to be studied.
Objective:
This study was undertaken to understand the number of breakthrough infections among doctors and nurses , their clinical presentation and outcomes after SARS-CoV2 vaccination was started in January 2021.
Materials & Methods:
This was a prospective study conducted in a 221 bed tertiary care hospital in Mumbai. Data regarding vaccination of doctors and nurses were collated from 16th Jan 2021 to 30th July 2021. The vaccines used were Covisheild (ChAdOx1-S/nCoV-19) and Covaxin (BBV152). A total of 638 HCWs were enrolled into the study comprising of 519 nurses and 119doctors. Relative risk and chi-square test analysis was performed to determine if there was a significant difference between breakthrough infections among those fully vaccinated versus the partially or non vaccinated HCWs.
Results:
582/638 (84.3%) of our HCWs were vaccinated with atleast one dose of the vaccine as of 31st July 2021 . 404/638 (63.3%) of the HCWs were vaccinated with both doses of the vaccines. 178/638 (27.9%) were vaccinated with only the first dose. 48/638 (7.52%) were not vaccinated till 31st July 2021 . Breakthrough infections (BTIs) were seen in 5.2% (21/404) of HCWs. 22.9%(11/48) of unvaccinated HCWs had the infection in 2021 after vaccines were introduced . 17.4%(31/178) HCWs got infected after the first dose of vaccine. 13.5 % (7/52) of infected HCWs got admitted but did not require any oxygen support indicating they all had mild disease. All HCWs recovered completely.
Conclusion:
Our data clearly indicates that vaccination has a protective effect to SARS-CoV2 infection, with 22.9% infection among the unvaccinated HCWs and only 5% infection among HCWs who had taken two doses of the SARS-CoV2 vaccine. All infections post vaccination were mild in our study.
Article Details
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