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Objective The COVID-19 pandemic has badly affected the world with its devastating effects, including Sindh, Pakistan. A massive vaccination campaign against COVID-19 is considered one of the effective ways to curtail the spread of the disease. However, the acceptability of the COVID-19 vaccine is based on the general population’s knowledge, attitude, perception and willingness for vaccination. Therefore, a survey among the public in Sindh, Pakistan, was done to evaluate their knowledge, attitude, perception and willingness to accept COVID-19 vaccination. Method The online survey was conducted among the residents of Sindh, Pakistan, in July 2021 through a survey tool designed using Google Forms and sent to the population through various social media. Results Of 926 study participants, 59.0% were male, and 68.6% were aged between 18 and 31 years. Higher percentages of responses were recorded from the Hyderabad division (37.5%), and 60.0% of respondents were graduates, with 34.8% of them in the private sector. The results showed that 36.4% of respondents had good knowledge, and 30.3% had a positive attitude toward COVID-19 vaccination. Almost 77% of respondents perceived that everyone should get vaccinated in the country and those health care workers on priority. A majority (80.8%) of respondents were willing to accept COVID-19 vaccination. Conclusion Despite having insufficient knowledge and a low percentage of positive attitude public in Sindh are willing to be vaccinated. Based on this finding, more effort has to be done to promote vaccination among the public, especially among the less educated population.

ABSTRACT… Introduction: Drug-drug interaction refers to an altered or impaired response of drug as a resultant of the other drug's activity. However, recently advancement in field of therapeutics has leaded the therapy toward more rational and logical trend in order to improve the patients' health with respect to cost effectiveness. Objective: To assess the various levels of DDIs in Prescriptions at public sector teaching hospital of Hyderabad, Pakistan. Study Design and Settings/Methodology: A descriptive observational questionnaire based study has been conducted by collecting initially 250 random prescriptions of various patients prescribed with multiple drugs. Tertiary care hospital OPD and In-patient wards were visited for a period of 06 months. The Prescriptions (℞) so collected were analyzed and assessed individually for drug interactions using Standard drug interaction software i.e.. Lexi-comp's Lexi-Interact, Drug Information Handbook, Hansten and Horn's drug interactions. Results: For this study, a total 250 Prescriptions were collected. It was observed that 30 (12%) prescriptions contained with single medication, 10 (4%) prescriptions were unreadable, 210 (84%) prescriptions were contained more than one medication. Moreover, 210 (84%) poly-pharmacy prescriptions focused keenly. Subsequently, 51 (24%) prescriptions ensured the prevalence of DDIs and 159 (76%) were NonDDIs prescriptions. Similarly, 13 ℞ contained four or more than four drugs, 32 ℞ contained three drugs and 06 prescriptions contained two drugs correspondingly. Conclusion: It was clearly concluded that the most potential reason of DDIs are Poly pharmacy. So it is of utmost need to enhance the health care policies in overall healthcare system in order to antagonize DDIs associated morbidity and mortality among society.

Background The response to the vaccine may vary among individuals. Hence, it is important to know how often individuals experience side effects after immunization against COVID-19. Objective This study aimed to assess the incidence of side effects following COVID-19 vaccination across different vaccine recipients in Southern Pakistan and identify the potential factors associated with these side effects in the population. Methods The survey was conducted across Pakistan through Google-forms Links from August to October 2021. The questionnaire included demographic information and COVID-19 vaccine information. Chi-square (x2) was performed for comparative analysis to check the significance level with P <0.05. The final analysis included 507 participants who had received COVID-19 vaccines. Results Of the total 507 COVID-19 vaccines recipients, 24.9% received CoronaVac, 36.5% received BBIBP-CorV, 14.2% received BNT162b2, 13.8% received AZD1222, and 10.7% received mRNA-1273. The most prominent side effects after the first dose were fever, weakness, lethargy, and pain at the site of injection. Moreover, the most commonly reported side effects after the second dose were pain at the injection site, headache, body ache, lethargy, fever, chills, flu-like symptoms, and diarrhea. Conclusion Our results suggested that the side effects due to COVID-19 vaccination can vary between the first and second doses and type of COVID-19 vaccine. Our findings suggest continuing monitoring of vaccine safety and the importance of individualized risk-benefit assessment for COVID-19 immunization.