Publications by authors named "A Uuskula"

Introduction: Repeated COVID-19 booster vaccination was recommended in healthcare workers (HCWs) to maintain protection. We measured the relative vaccine effectiveness (rVE) of the second booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine compared to the first booster, against laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in HCWs.

Methods: In a prospective cohort study among HCWs from 12 European hospitals, we collected nasopharyngeal or saliva samples at enrolment and during weekly/fortnightly follow-up between October 2022 and May 2023.

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European countries have included healthcare workers (HCWs) among priority groups for COVID-19 vaccination. We established a multi-country hospital network to measure the SARS-CoV-2 incidence and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines among HCWs against laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. HCWs from 19 hospitals in 10 countries participated in a dynamic prospective cohort study, providing samples for SARS-CoV-2 testing at enrolment and during weekly/fortnightly follow-up.

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Background: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified a range of symptomatic manifestations to aid in the clinical diagnosis of post-COVID conditions, herein referred to as post-acute COVID-19 symptoms. We conducted an international network cohort study to estimate the burden of these symptoms in North American, European, and Asian populations.

Methods: A federated analysis was conducted including 10 databases from the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Norway, Estonia, Spain, France, South Korea, and the United States, between September 1st 2020 and latest data availability (which varied from December 31st 2021 to February 28th 2023), covering primary and secondary care, nationwide registries, and claims data, all mapped to the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership Common Data Model (OMOP CDM).

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Article Synopsis
  • A study assessed the effectiveness of the autumn 2023 COVID-19 vaccination in 1,305 healthcare workers across 13 European hospitals against confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections.
  • Overall, the vaccine effectiveness was found to be 22%, with a notable difference in effectiveness before and after the predominant circulation of specific variants (BA.2.86/JN.1).
  • The findings suggest that the autumn 2023 vaccination resulted in only a moderate-to-low reduction in infection rates among healthcare workers, emphasizing the need for ongoing monitoring of vaccine effectiveness for better COVID-19 prevention strategies.
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Background: The increased knowledge of cervical cancer (CC) risk factors and suboptimal performance of present screening programs has generated interest in shifting from a universal screening approach to one based on individual risk assessment. To inform the future development of risk-based CC screening programs, it is crucial to gain insight into the factors influencing the acceptability of such approach among screening target group women. The aim of this study was to prospectively investigate the acceptability of risk-based CC screening and to identify potential barriers.

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