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Browsing by Author "Albarrak, Ali"
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Item Clinical respiratory infections and pneumonia during the Hajj pilgrimage: A systematic review(Elsevier, 2019) Benkouiten, Samir; Al-Tawfiq, Jaffar A.; Memish, Ziad A.; Albarrak, Ali; Gautret, Philippe; Medicine, School of MedicineBackground The Islamic Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca is one of the world's largest annual mass gatherings. Inevitable overcrowding during the pilgrims' stay greatly increases the risk of acquiring and spreading infectious diseases, especially respiratory diseases. Method The MEDLINE/PubMed and Scopus databases were searched for all relevant papers published prior to February 2018 that evaluated the prevalence of clinical symptoms of respiratory infections, including pneumonia, among Hajj pilgrims, as well as their influenza and pneumococcal vaccination status. Results A total of 61 papers were included in the review. Both cohort- and hospital-based studies provide complementary data, and both are therefore necessary to provide a complete picture of the total burden of respiratory diseases during the Hajj. Respiratory symptoms have been common among Hajj pilgrims over the last 15 years. In cohorts of pilgrims, cough ranged from 1.9% to 91.5%. However, the prevalence rates of the most common symptoms (cough, sore throat, and subjective fever) of influenza-like illness (ILI) varied widely across the included studies. These studies have shown variable results, with overall rates of ILI ranging from 8% to 78.2%. These differences might result from differences in study design, study period, and rates of vaccination against seasonal influenza that ranged from 1.1% to 100% among study participants. Moreover, the definition of ILI was inconsistent across studies. In hospitalized Hajj pilgrims, the prevalence of pneumonia, that remains a major concern in critically ill patients, ranged from 0.2% to 54.8%. Conclusions Large multinational follow-up studies are recommended for clinic-based syndromic surveillance, in conjunction with microbiological surveillance. Matched cohorts ensure better comparability across studies. However, study design and data collection procedures should be standardized to facilitate reporting and to achieve comparability between studies. Furthermore, the definition of ILI, and of most common symptoms used to define respiratory infections (e.g., upper respiratory tract infection), need to be precisely defined and consistently used. Future studies need to address potential effect of influenza and pneumococcal vaccine in the context of the Hajj pilgrimage.Item Safety and Reactogenicity of the ChAdOx1 (AZD1222) COVID-19 Vaccine in Saudi Arabia(Elsevier, 2021-09) Al Bahrani, Salma; Albarrak, Ali; Alghamdi, Othman Ali; Alghamdi, Mesfer Abdullah; Hakami, Fatimah H.; Al Abaadi, Asmaa K.; Alkhrashi, Sausan A.; Alghamdi, Mansour Y.; Almershad, Meshael M.; Alenazi, Mansour Moklif; El Gezery, Mohamed Hany; Jebakumar, Arulanantham Zechariah; Al-Tawfiq, Jaffar A.; Medicine, School of MedicineIntroduction The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was one of the first countries to implement a COVID-19 vaccination program. This study estimated the safety and reactogenicity of the ChAdOx1-S vaccine after the first dose administered to adults. Methods This cross-sectional study included 1592 randomly selected vaccinees from April to May 2021. A questionnaire was delivered to the vaccinees via phone calls 7 and 21 days after the first vaccine dose. Results Of the 1592 vaccinees who had the first dose, the mean age was 37.4 (± 9.6) years and 81% were males. Of all the vaccinees, 553 (34.7%) reported an adverse reaction on the first telephone call. The most common symptoms were: pain at the site of injection (485, 30.5%), musculoskeletal symptoms (438, 27.5%), skin rash (307, 19.2%), gastrointestinal symptoms (379, 23.8%) and fever (498, 31.3%). Men were more likely to report fever (76.9% vs. 23.1%; P = 0.005), skin rash (81.1% vs. 18.9%, P = 0.005) and pain at the injection site (77.3% vs. 22.7%, P < 0.0001). Post-vaccine COVID-19 infection was 0.5% and there were no hospitalizations. Conclusion This study observed no major side effects of the ChAdOx1-S vaccine and no reported breakthrough infection during the observation period.