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Received date : 08-07-2021 Revised date : 30-08-2021 Accepted date : 03-09-2021 Published date : 30-09-2021

Mediterr J Pharm Pharm Sci 1 (3): 33-39, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5534612

Original Research


Acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine among general population and students in Benghazi, Libya: a cross sectional study

Asma M. Buzgeia, Fatma A. Abdrabba


Abstract
The most successful and cost effective method for control the COVID-19 pandemic is the vaccination. Currently, there are different COVID-19 vaccine introduced into Libyan market. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine among general population and students in Benghazi city. A cross sectional survey was conducted during March 2021 among 440 respondents (240 general populations and 200 students) using a self-administered questionnaire. The results were considerably similar among the two groups of participants. Only 10.9% said that they infected with COVID-19 during the pandemic period. About two thirds of the respondents agreed to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when available whereas the majority said they would wait some time before taking the vaccine (71.4%). Approximately, one third of the participants preferred the Sputnik vaccine, 24% preferred the Pfizer and BioNTech and 19.2% preferred Oxford (AstraZeneca) vaccine. More than a half (55.9%) of the participants are refused to pay for the vaccine. The majority of the respondents do not think the vaccine alone will be enough in protection against the COVID-19 (79.8%). There was no significant association between general population, students and the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance (p = 0.776). Additionally, there was no significant correlations between socio-demographic data and attitudes of the respondents with the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine (p > 0.05), except for using hand sanitizers daily was significantly associated among the general population (p = 0.008). In conclusion, although, the general population and students have a good acceptability to the COVID-19 vaccine, more education health programs and promotion are wanted to reduce the vaccine hesitancy by declaring the importance of the vaccine, showing sufficient data stabilize the vaccine safety.
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