According to latest study in Qatar, administration of Covid-19 mRNA vaccine in the inpatient population in a rehabilitation facility can help them to gain complete immunity.
Featuring on Qscience.com, the study emphasizes that delaying the administration of the vaccine until the patients complete their rehabilitation process is totally unjustifiable and suggests initiation of vaccination campaigns in the inpatient facilities, while further researches is still being carried out on adverse drug reaction profile in this population if any, and the progression of these adverse drug reactions in a hospital setting is being monitored.
As per the study, by initiating such vaccination campaigns in inpatient rehabilitation, there is the advantage of gaining full immunity and reducing the risk of contracting Covid-19 infection and complications once discharged.
It was a prospective observational study done on adult patients admitted to a rehabilitation facility of QRI, who were considered eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine during their hospital stay. The aim of the study was the explore and quantify the incidence of adverse drug reactions post administration of the mRNA vaccine in the inpatient population at QRI.
The rehabilitation facility offers support and rehabilitation to general trauma patients, stroke patients and those suffering from spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries. Due to their prolonged stay in the hospital, these patients were candidates to receive the covid-19 vaccine, which will help doctors to closely monitor any potential reactions to the vaccine.
While pain at the infection site was the most commonly reported local adverse reaction, headache was the most frequent systemic adverse drug reaction. Majority of the reported reactions were mild to moderate in nature, and only one severe reaction was detected. Other common patterns were occurrence of fever at 24 hours after second dose, as against the first dose.
Majority of the patients who participated in the survey were males in the age group 30 to 60 years. About half the patients had a history of diabetes, hypertension or stroke. Among the 35 participants, 29 used the blood thinning medications, while all patients received the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine.
The results of the study did not show an increased risk of adverse drug reaction following vaccination with Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine in the inpatient population. The findings of the study were aligned with published literature on outpatients, providing support for inpatient vaccination campaigns.
