Side effects of Covishield vaccine among frontline healthcare workers of a tertiary health care center

ObjectivesCOVID disease started in the late 2019 and within a short time became a pandemic disease. With the increasing morbidity and mortality all over the world and the therapeutics not doing wonders, scientists were in the attempt to develop vaccines as a mitigating measure. With continuous efforts and developments, different vaccines were developed and rolled out gradually in different countries. Concerns were notable for occurrence of side effects. Hence this study was done to assess the side effects following Covishield vaccination in Nepal at the initial stage. MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study done via snowball sampling method among healthcare workers at a tertiary medical college hospital in Pokhara, Nepal after obtaining ethical consent from the institutional review committee of the concerned hospital. The proforma was sent via online means through different social media platforms and also printed forms were also given to the respondents. A total of 139 respondents were obtained after removing duplications. The data were entered into SPSS and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. P-value [≤] 0.05 was considered statistically significant. ResultsMajority (64.7%) were female healthcare workers. More than half (52.3%) used pre-medication in an attempt to avoid the side effects of vaccine. Most (90.6%) reported at least one side effect-local or systemic to the first dose and approximately three-quarter (74.3%) reported side effect to the second dose. Common side effects were pain at injection site, muscle pain, headache, fatigue and weakness. Most of the side effects were higher with the first dose as compared to the second dose. ConclusionSide effects are common with Covishield vaccination, significantly more with the first dose as compared to the second dose. Female gender, younger age and past covid infection were associated with slightly more occurrence of side effects; however were not found to be statistically significant.