Long-COVID versus adverse event following COVID vaccination among students and staff of tertiary care teaching hospital

Abstract

Background: Long COVID is an important public health concern requiring proper defining, quantifying and describing following SARS-CoV infection with differentiation from adverse events due to COVID vaccination. So, this study was planned to analyze adverse effect of COVID19 vaccination or drug for COVID treatment versus consequences of COVID19 infection. Methods: Self-reported data was collected through questionnaire-based survey by voluntary participation of healthcare staff. Percentage of participant developing various events was analyzed by enlisting sign, symptom, co-morbidity and medication history. Association between COVID-19 infection with number of doses of COVID-19 vaccine taken was analyzed by Chi Square Test with p value <0.05. Association between presence of specific sign, symptom after COVID infection or side effect after COVID vaccination was analyzed by Chi-Square Test with p value <0.05. Results: Overall total 985 (59.58%) participants were analyzed and among them maximum number of participants (60.30%) reported as COVID-19 positive during the third wave with history of diagnosed COVID positive twice (57.87%). Participants with presence of co-morbidity were more likely to develop symptoms (p<0.001). On analysis, fever, body ache, headache, sore throat and fatigue were significantly more likely to develop after COVID infection as compared to after COVID vaccination (p<0.001). Conclusions: This study by exploratory survey highlights heterogeneity of Long COVID sign or symptom that’s seen predominantly in person with co-morbidity and a few of them were mimicking adverse events after COVID vaccinations.