Volume 27, Issue 131, January 2023

Adverse effects of COVID-19 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in children aged 5-18 years in Saudi Arabia

Abbas Elbakry A Elsayed^1,2, Naif Alrudian³, Hussein Koura¹, Abdulmajeed Adel Alsharif⁴, Saif Fahad Alkathiri⁴, Abdullah Abdulrahman Alotaibi⁴, Abdulmohsen Khalid Alghamdi⁴, Nasser Saeed Aldosari⁴, Ali Hassan A Ali^5,6♦

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj 11942, Saudi Arabia
²Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Assuit, Egypt
³Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj 11942, Saudi Arabia
⁴College of Medicine, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, KSA
⁵Anatomy Department, College of Medicine, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj 11942, KSA
⁶Anatomy Department, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt

^♦Corresponding author
Anatomy Department, College of Medicine, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj and Anatomy Department, Faculty of Medicine, Al- Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt

ABSTRACT

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can infect children of all ages. Despite the fact that children have a lower risk of exposure and are tested less frequently than adults, their incidence is similar to that of adults. The most effective way to prevent COVID-19 infection is by vaccination. The study's objective was to document vaccination side effects in children aged 5 to 18 years. This cross-sectional study had 303 participating kids between the ages of 5 and 18 in its sample. During the months of March and April 2022, a validated modified questionnaire was circulated as a Google form to KSA citizens via social networking sites. The questionnaire asked questions about the participant's background, socio-demographic information, vaccination history, the mild and major adverse effects of the Pfizer vaccine and how those symptoms affected the child's health and quality of life. There was a total of 303 responses; all of them received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech covid-19 vaccine. They were 163 female children (54 %) and 140 males (46 %). The most frequently reported minor adverse effects were body tiredness (88.2%), moderate fever (76.5%), mild headache (72.3%) and discomfort, redness and swelling at the injection site (90.7%). The most reported severe side effects were severe headache (32.8%) and high fever (21.8%). Only five children (4.2%) required hospitalization for 1-3 days. The most common side effects for the Pfizer Covid-19 were the mild and moderate one including pain, redness and swelling at the injection site, fatigue, fever and headache. Most of the symptoms were not severe to need hospital admission.

Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Children, Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, side effects

Medical Science, 2023, 27, e6ms2707

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi/v27i131/e6ms2707

Published: 01 January 2023