Vaccination anti-covid-19 en Algérie : entre l’espoir et la réalité

Abstract

Throughout history, nothing has killed more human beings than infectious diseases. Since its emergence in December 2019, SARS-COV-2 was the origin of a pandemic that shook the whole world from February 2020. Huge efforts have been devoted to find a quick way to combat this disease. After the development of anti-COVID-19 vaccines, several rumors about their effectiveness and safety spread. The objective of this online observational retrospective survey is to document the vaccination situation in Algeria as well as to identify the various side effects claimed by the Algerian population during the first 24 hours after receiving anti-COVID-19 vaccines. One thousand (1000) Algerians participated in this survey. These participants had an age between 18 and 78 years with an average of 33,405 years ±18,987 years. The sex ratio was 2.8 with female predominance. The participants resided in different Wilayas, the majority of which came from Bejaia (21.8%) and Setif (17.9%). Most of the participants (84%) had a university degree. Approximately (24%) people were vaccinated between March 2020 and April 2022. Of these, 81.0% were fully vaccinated and 19.0% were partially vaccinated. Different Types pf vaccines have been used including Sinovac (51%) Janssen (16%), Sputnik (12%), AstraZeneca (10.1%), Sinopharm (5%),Pfizer (5%). The vaccination rate and the type of administered vaccine varied according to age, gender. Young people and the male sex are the most vaccinated. Sputnik and AstraZeneca were mostly administered to the elderly. More than half (63.0%) did not feel any annoying signs after receiving the vaccine. Others claimed the presence of certain effects including fever (21.6%), muscular aches (23.3%), chills (8.9%), asthenia (8.1%), headache (7.2%), joint pain (5.5%), nausea (4.7%), dry cough (2.1%), dyspnea (1.7%), diarrhea (1.7%), vomiting (1.7%),ageusia (1.3%), runny nose (1.3%), anosmia (0.8%), anorexia (0.8%), wet cough (0.4%), pain at the injection site (0.8%), stunning ears (0.4%), heaviness in the arms or legs (0.4%), dizziness (0.4%). These mild and benign effects are similar to the effects reported by some studies. Thus, the benefits of anti-COVID-19 vaccines in preventing complications and death outweigh the danger of their adverse effects.