Study of adverse events of A/H1N1 vaccine among health care staff in selected provinces of Afghanistan, 2010

At the end of March 2010 an A/H1N1 vaccination campaign was conducted in Afghanistan using donated vaccines. However, no surveillance system for detection of adverse events following immunization was in place. We report a cross-sectional, descriptive survey in 4 provinces of Afghanistan to assess the rate of adverse events among health care staff immunized with A/H1N1 monovalent vaccine 4 weeks after vaccination. Using random sampling proportionate to size, 350 staff (mean age 36 years, range 16–65 years) were surveyed using a questionnaire. The highest self-reported rates of adverse events were pain at the injection site (53%), fever in the first 3 days after immunization (40%), body pain (39%), tiredness (33%), swelling at the injection site (29%) and redness at the injection site (28%). More females than males suffered adverse reactions and the rates varied across different provinces, ranging from 79% in Balkh to 23% in Kabul.