Factors associated with intention to receive COVID-19 vaccine among HIV positive patients attending ART clinic.

Dear editor

We read with great interest the published article of Mesfin Y et al. describing the factors associated with the intention to receive the COVID-19 vaccine among HIV-positive patients attending ART clinics in Southwest Ethiopia. As clinical pharmacy specialists, we appreciate the importance of assessing the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among highly exposed patients like HIV patients in low-resource settings [1]. In this letter, we suggest the possible risk factors that can affect the patients’ acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Globally, the patient's acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine can be affected by their perceptions and beliefs. This vaccine hesitancy was more prevalent in low-resource settings including Ethiopia [2]. Additionally, patients' attitude was predictors of the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in which patients having a negative attitude against vaccination could result in vaccine hesitancy [2,3]. Besides to this, the patients believe that COVID-19 infection can be prevented with a vaccine is a factor that determines the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine [4].

The author Mesfin Y et al. reported that the probability of the patients taking the COVID-19 vaccine was better among patients presented with co-morbidity. This is due to the fact that chronic patients having comorbidity were more likely to be affected by this virus and carry a high clinical burden from COVID-19 [2].

The implementation of different COVID-19 prevention measures, like quarantine, restricted movement, nationwide lockdowns, hand washing with water and soap, keep respiratory hygiene, and use facemask could hinder the spread of the pandemic [4]. Patients having good knowledge and practice towards COVID-19 preventive measures had more likely to receive the vaccine as compared to their counterparts [5,6]. The author also assessed that the patients who had good knowledge of COVID-19 preventive practice were highly intended to receive the vaccine compared with those who had poor knowledge.

Lack of adequate information, higher immunity level, the uncertainty of patients towards the safety and efficacy of the vaccine might be the risk factors towards the vaccine hesitancy [2,7,8]. The COVID-19 vaccine is developed and distributed with the in short time and its unknown long-term side effect has caused patients to hesitant to the vaccine [9]. However, the author did not assess the possible reason for the vaccine hesitancy.

Male patients having HIV were more likely to take the COVID-19 vaccine than females. This is similar to the study done by Bekele F et al. [2]. The author recommends empowering an educational intervention about the COVID-19 vaccine. On top of that, vaccine campaigns should be started to deliver adequate insights about the importance of the COVID-19 vaccine, especially in immune-compromised patients.

Disclosure

The conflict of interest was not reported in this communication.

Provenance and peer review

Not commissioned, externally peer reviewed.

Ethical approval

Not applicable.

Sources of funding

Not applicable.

Consent

Not applicable. No individual person's personal details, images or videos are being used in this study.

Author contribution

FB contributes in the preparation of the communication. GF was participated in revised manuscript. All authors checked and confirmed the final version of the manuscript.

Registration of research studies

Not applicable.

Guarantor

Firomsa Bekele.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declared that they have no competing interest.