Study of adverse events of A/H1N1 vaccine among health care staff in selected provinces of Afghanistan, 2010

Abstract

At the end of March 2010 an A/H1N1 vaccination campaign was conducted in Afghanistan using donated vaccines. However, no surveillance system for detection of adverse events following immunization was in place. We report a cross-sectional, descriptive survey in 4 provinces of Afghanistan to assess the rate of adverse events among health care staff immunized with A/H1N1 monovalent vaccine 4 weeks after vaccination. Using random sampling proportionate to size, 350 staff [‎mean age 36 years, range 16-65 years]‎ were surveyed using a questionnaire. The highest self-reported rates of adverse events were pain at the injection site [‎53%]‎, fever in the first 3 days after immunization [‎40%]‎, body pain [‎39%]‎, tiredness [‎33%]‎, swelling at the injection site [‎29%]‎ and redness at the injection site [‎28%]‎. More females than males suffered adverse reactions and the rates varied across different provinces, ranging from 79% in Balkh to 23% in Kabul