Publications by authors named "Merin Alex"
Background: Despite the availability of a highly efficacious vaccine, varicella outbreaks are still being reported globally. In this study, we evaluated the real-world effectiveness of varicella vaccination among children between the ages of 1 and 18 years old during the period 2017 to 2019 in Qatar.
Methods: A matched case-control study was conducted that included all reported varicella-infected children who visited the primary healthcare system in Qatar from January 2017 to December 2019.
Article Synopsis
- The COVID-19 pandemic led to a noticeable decrease in antibiotic prescriptions at Primary Health Care Centers in Qatar, dropping from 74,909 pre-pandemic prescriptions to 29,273 during the initial wave.
- The study analyzed prescription patterns by comparing two-month intervals before and during the pandemic, focusing on different age groups.
- Most antibiotics prescribed were Betalactams before and during COVID-19, but the overall prescription rate during the pandemic was significantly lower than before.
The purpose of this study was to improve influenza vaccination, and determine factors influencing vaccine declination among health care workers (HCW) in Qatar. We launched an influenza vaccination campaign to vaccinate around 4700 HCW in 22 Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) centers in Qatar between 1st and 15th of November, 2015. Our target was to vaccinate 60% of all HCW.
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