Cutaneous adverse events following 771 doses of the inactivated and mRNA COVID-19 vaccines: A survey study among health care providers.

INTRODUCTION

As Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) still continues to affect humanity worldwide, different types of COVID-19 vaccines are being administered to maintain immunization against COVID-19. As both the inactivated and mRNA vaccines are now being applied prevalently, systemic adverse events along with cutaneous side effects are frequently being reported in the literature.

AIM: In our study, we aimed to determine the cutaneous adverse effects of the inactivated (Sinovac-CoronaVac) and mRNA (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccines in healthcare providers in a tertiary referral hospital.

METHODS

A web-based survey consisting of 26 questions related to the systemic and cutaneous side effects of the inactivated and mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, was formed. The online questionnaire was spread among the healthcare professionals working in a tertiary referral hospital via common instant messaging groups and e-mail.

FINDINGS: A total number of 234 participants were included in the study. One hundred fifty-seven were female whereas 77 were male. The mean age was 31.51 years. Eighty-nine respondents reported to have at least one cutaneous side effect after COVID-19 vaccination. Most commonly observed cutaneous side effects were local injection site reactions. Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at the first and second doses, was shown to have statistically significantly higher rates of systemic and cutaneous adverse events compared to the Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccine.

RESULTS

Our study shows that both inactivated and mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are associated with transient local injection site reactions, no severe systemic or cutaneous adverse events were observed in our study population.