Characteristics of health care workers with SARS-CoV-2 at a COVID-19 hospital in Türkiye: Homologous versus heterologous vaccination

Işıl Deniz Alıravcı; Yusuf Haydar Ertekin; Gamze Çan; Sevil Alkan

doi:10.12669/pjms.40.8.8455

Işıl Deniz Alıravcı Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Canakkale 18 March University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4740-1579
Yusuf Haydar Ertekin Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University
Gamze Çan Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Canakkale 18 March University, Çanakkale, Türkiye https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7065-649X
Sevil Alkan Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Canakkale 18 March University https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1944-2477

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.40.8.8455

Keywords: COVID-19, Health personnel, COVID-19 vaccine, SARS-CoV-2, Vaccination, BNT162 Vaccine

Abstract

Objective: Given the limited studies on types of vaccination and infection rates among health care workers (HCWs) in Türkiye, we analyzed the demographic, clinical, and vaccination characteristics as well as the attitudes of HCWs who have been infected with COVID-19.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed demographic and clinical data on breakthrough COVID-19 infections in HCWs from hospital surveillance data collected between April 5, 2020, and November 1, 2022. The comparison was based on four subgroups that consisted of unvaccinated, one-shot-vaccinated, homologous vaccinated, and heterologous vaccinated individuals. Participants who received various combinations of Sinovac/CoronaVac and/or BioNTech/Pfizer vaccines were compared for detection of COVID-19.

Results: During a 33-month period of 744 HCWs who contracted COVID-19, women (65.3%) and nurses (28.9%) were the most affected, followed by doctors (25.8%). Of the infected HCWs, only 1.3% required hospitalization, 0.3% required ICU support, and 98.4% were outpatients. By vaccination status, 143 of the HCWs (19.2%) were unvaccinated, 292 (39.2%) were homologously vaccinated, 294 (39.5%) were heterologously vaccinated, 15 (2%) received a single shot, 206 (27.7%) received two shots, and 165 (22.2%) received three shots. All HCWs contracted COVID-19 at a mean of 134-days (range:1-539) after vaccination. While the proportions of homologously and heterologously vaccinated HCWs were similar, the time elapsed from vaccination to contracting COVID-19 varied (mean 143.4±106.7 vs.126.4±82.43 days).

Conclusions: Among both outpatients and inpatients with COVID-19, women HCWs outnumbered men HCWs. HCWs who received homologous vaccination contracted COVID-19 later than those who received heterologous vaccination.

doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.40.8.8455

How to cite this: Alıravcı ID, Ertekin YH, Can G, Alkan S. Characteristics of health care workers with SARS-CoV-2 at a COVID-19 hospital in Türkiye: Homologous versus heterologous vaccination. Pak J Med Sci. 2024;40(8):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.40.8.8455

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.