Iraqi Journal of Pharmacy

Abstract

Background: A key public health intervention strategy to stop the spread of infectious diseases, such as the present COVID-19 pandemic, is vaccination.  Nearly 190 COVID-19 vaccines are now being developed at various phases of pre-clinical and clinical testing, with a few vaccines recently receiving Emergency Use Authorizations (EUA) and being accepted by the WHO in several regions of the world.
Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional design was adopted to conduct the study which involve all medical staff who attends to Covid-19 vaccination center at Al-Mosul General Hospital during the period from 1^st July 2021 to 31^st November 2021. The study sample was 200 participants of different specializations who attend to take the 1^st or the 2^nd dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. The interview was done by the researchers directly through a checklist. The statistical analysis was done with IBM-SPSS-26.  
Results: The mean age of the study sample is 34.8 years, 56.5% of them are males and 43.5% are females, fever is the most frequent side effect representing 49.0%, and the inflammatory reaction at the site of injection whether mild or severe represents 35.0%, pain at the injection site occurs in 28.5%, and headache occurs in 9.5%, shows that 69.7% are females and 30.3% are males. The Pfizer vaccine of batch no. FJ8198, FM3444, and FJ1966 were associated with side effects more than others.
Conclusion: COVID-19 vaccine showed that the safety of the vaccine with no major side effects emerging and females were more prone to experience side effects. The Pfizer vaccine of batch no. FJ8198, FM3444, and FJ1966 were associated with side effects more than others.