Side effects of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine in health workers of a hospital in the southeast of Mexico.

INTRODUCTION: The goal of this study was to evaluate the side effects of application of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine on the workers at a Mexican hospital. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was carried out, in which 1351 workers from a tertiary care center in the Mexican southeast were included. Sociodemographic data, comorbidities, and side effects after the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine were obtained through an online survey. The variables were analyzed through descriptive statistics. The presence or absence of side effects was analyzed through the Chi-square test or t-test, as appropriate. The result was considered statistically significant at p < 0.05. RESULTS: A total of 1351 health workers participated in the online survey. The mean age was 37.8 ± 10.9 years and 56.4% were women. Among them, 8.2% suffered from high blood pressure. In addition, 76.7% manifested pain in the application area. The presence of side effects was associated with the female gender (p < 0.01). Side effects were more prevalent in younger age (37.2 ± 10.7) than older age (41.5 ± 10.8) (p < 0.01). There was no association with the presence of comorbidities (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The data suggest that pain in the application area is the most frequent side effect among workers in a Mexican hospital who received the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19. In addition, we observed sialorrhea as a side effect in the studied population and this had not previously been reported. The highest number of adverse events occurred between 24 to 72 hours after application.

El desafío del Hospital Regional de alta especialidad "Dr. Juan Graham Casasús" ante la nueva pandemia de SARS-CoV-2: la ocupación hospitalaria / The challenge of the high speciality Hospital "Dr. Juan Graham Casasus" in the face of the new SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: the bed occupancy

Al inicio de la pandemia en México, el Hospital Regional de Alta Especialidad "Dr. Juan Graham Casasús" contaba con 156 camas para la atención de pacientes críticos por sintomatología correspondiente a COVID-19, para abordar esto, se incrementó en un 50% la capacidad hospitalaria durante el periodo crítico. En los primeros 6 meses de pandemia se brindó atención a cerca del 60% de la población de la región que requirió atención especializada por COVID-19 pero a pesar de los resultados se concluye que COVID-19 representa un importante desafío en el sureste de México. Sobre la base de los resultados actuales se evidencia la necesidad de integrar la detección del SARS-CoV-2 de manera rutinaria reconociendo una nueva normalidad en un hospital de tercer nivel en Tabasco, México

At the beginning of the pandemic in Mexico, the "Dr. Juan Garaham Casasús" Hospital had 156 beds for the care of critical patients due to symptoms corresponding to COVID-19. To address this, hospital capacity increased by 50% during the critical period. In the first six months of the pandemic, care was provided to about 60% of the population in the region that required specialized care for COVID-19, still despite the results, it concluded that COVID-19 represents a challenge in the southeast of Mexico and based on the current results, it is evident the need to integrate the detection of SARS-CoV-2 routinely, recognizing a new normal in a tertiary hospital in Tabasco, Mexico.

Features of patients that died for COVID-19 in a hospital in the south of Mexico: A observational cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Due to the wide spread of SARS-CoV2 around the world, the risk of death in individuals with metabolic comorbidities has dangerously increased. Mexico has a high number of infected individuals and deaths by COVID-19 as well as an important burden of metabolic diseases; nevertheless, reports about features of Mexican individuals with COVID-19 are scarce. The aim of this study was to evaluate demographic features, clinical characteristics and the pharmacological treatment of individuals who died by COVID-19 in the south of Mexico. METHODS: We performed an observational study including the information of 185 deceased individuals with confirmed diagnoses of COVID-19. Data were retrieved from medical records. Categorical data were expressed as proportions (%) and numerical data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation. Comorbidities and overlapping symptoms were plotted as Venn diagrams. Drug clusters were plotted as dendrograms. RESULTS: The mean age was 59.53 years. There was a male predominance (60.1%). The mean hospital stay was 4.75 ± 4.43 days. The most frequent symptoms were dyspnea (88.77%), fever (71.42%) and dry cough (64.28%). Present comorbidities included diabetes (60.63%), hypertension (59.57%) and obesity (43.61%). The main drugs used for treating COVID-19 were azithromycin (60.6%), hydroxychloroquine (53.0%) and oseltamivir (27.3%). CONCLUSIONS: Mexican individuals who died of COVID-19 had shorter hospital stays, higher frequency of shortness of breath, and higher prevalence of diabetes than individuals from other countries. Also, there was a high frequency of off-label use of drugs for their treatment.