@article{Muazzam_Naz_Irfan_Mahmood_2022, title={COVID-19 related fears and adherence to infection control protocol amongst immunocompromised transplant recipients: A case study}, volume={38}, url={https://pjms.org.pk/index.php/pjms/article/view/5590}, DOI={10.12669/pjms.38.8.5590}, abstractNote={<p><em><strong>Background &amp; Objective:</strong></em> Transplant recipients are at a high risk of critical COVID-19 illness due to chronic immunosuppression and their underlying medical condition. Our objective was to study the COVID-19 related fears and adherence to infection control measures in solid organ transplant recipients during COVID-19 pandemic.</p> <p><em><strong>Methods:</strong></em> A descriptive study was conducted during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic (April- August 2020) in Punjab, Pakistan, as a part of province wide COVID-19 awareness drive 754 recipients registered at Punjab Human Organ Transplantation Authority (P-HOTA) for solid organ transplant were contacted telephonically and administered a self-constructed questionnaire. The participants’ response was linked to demographic, anthropometric and disease characteristics available in organizational data base.</p> <p><em><strong>Results:</strong></em> Seven hundred fifty four patients who had undergone transplant or were on list during the time period 2018-2020 were identified from data base of PHOTA. 648 patients were contacted while 80 were found to have expired post- transplant and 26 recipients were still on the waiting list. The median age was 31-40 years, with male predominance (5:1). A majority of patients (93%) were found to be well informed about corona infection and its impact on their illness (89%) but (59%) of the recipients had a fear score 25-34(severe) of acquiring infection with female predominance (61%). All the recipients adhered to measures like wearing masks, frequent hand washing and maintaining safe distance .65.9% patient’s preferred online consultation while (77.9%) patients left their shoes outside their house.</p> <p><em><strong>Conclusion:</strong> </em>During the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic Solid Organ Transplant patients seemed well informed of COVID-19 infection and adhered to precautionary measures against the infections. About 78% of recipients reported that their health and quality of health care (61.1%) during this period remained the same while 3.4% reported of being infected or a contact history with COVID-19 patients</p> <p><strong>doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.38.8.5590</strong></p> <p><em><strong>How to cite this:</strong></em><br>Moazzam A, Naz H, Irfan K, Mahmood Z. COVID-19 related fears and adherence to infection control protocol amongst immunocompromised transplant recipients: A case study. Pak J Med Sci. 2022;38(8):2289-2295. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.38.8.5590</p> <p>This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</p&gt;}, number={8}, journal={Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences}, author={Muazzam, Amena and Naz, Hafeeza and Irfan, Khadija and Mahmood, Zulaikha}, year={2022}, month={Oct.} }