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Background Little is known about parental coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine hesitancy in children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). This survey estimated the prevalence and predictive factors of vaccine hesitancy among parents of children with NDD. Methods A nationally representative cross-sectional survey was conducted from October 10 to 31, 2021. A structured vaccine hesitancy questionnaire was used to collect data from parents aged ≥ 18 years with children with NDD. In addition, individual face-to-face interviews were conducted at randomly selected places throughout Bangladesh. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify the predictors of vaccine hesitancy. Results A total of 396 parents participated in the study. Of these, 169 (42.7%) parents were hesitant to vaccinate their children. Higher odds of vaccine hesitancy were found among parents who lived in the northern zone (AOR = 17.15, 95% CI = 5.86–50.09; p < 0.001), those who thought vaccines would not be safe and effective for Bangladeshi children (AOR = 3.22, 95% CI = 1.68–15.19; p < 0.001), those who were either not vaccinated or did not receive the COVID-19 vaccine themselves (AOR = 12.14, 95% CI = 8.48–17.36; p < 0.001), those who said that they or their family members had not tested positive for COVID-19 (AOR = 2.13, 95% CI = 1.07–4.25), and those who did not lose a family member to COVID-19 (AOR = 2.12, 95% CI = 1.03–4.61; p = 0.040). Furthermore, parents who were not likely to believe that their children or a family member could be infected with COVID-19 the following year (AOR = 4.99, 95% CI = 1.81–13.77; p < 0.001) and who were not concerned at all about their children or a family member being infected the following year (AOR = 2.34, 95% CI = 1.65–8.37; p = 0.043) had significantly higher odds of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Conclusions Given the high prevalence of vaccine hesitancy, policymakers, public health practitioners, and pediatricians can implement and support strategies to ensure that children with NDD and their caregivers and family members receive the COVID-19 vaccine to fight pandemic induced hazards.

Background Dynamics and persistence of neutralizing and non-neutralizing antibodies can give us the knowledge required for serodiagnosis, disease management, and successful vaccine design and development. The disappearance of antibodies, absence of humoral immunity activation, and sporadic reinfection cases emphasize the importance of longitudinal antibody dynamics against variable structural antigens. Methods In this study, twenty-five healthy subjects working in a SARS-COV-2 serodiagnostic assay development project were enrolled, and their sign and symptoms were followed up to six months. Three subjects showed COVID-19-like symptoms, and three subjects’ antibody dynamics were followed over 120 days by analyzing 516 samples. We have developed 12 different types of in-house ELISAs to observe the kinetics of IgG, IgM, and IgA against four SARS-CoV-2 proteins, namely nucleocapsid, RBD, S1, and whole spike (S1+S2). For the development of these assays, 30–104 pre-pandemic samples were taken as negative controls and 83 RT-qPCR positive samples as positive ones. Results All three subjects presented COVID-19-like symptoms twice, with mild symptoms in the first episode were severe in the second, and RT-qPCR confirmed the latter. The initial episode did not culminate with any significant antibody development, while a multifold increase in IgG antibodies characterized the second episode. Interestingly, IgG antibody development concurrent with IgM and IgA and persisted, whereas the latter two weans off rather quickly if appeared. Conclusion Antibody kinetics observed in this study can provide a pathway to the successful development of sero-diagnostics and epidemiologists to predict the fate of vaccination currently in place.

Background Rapid increase in COVID-19 suspected cases has rendered disease diagnosis challenging, mainly depending upon RT-qPCR. Reliable, rapid, and cost-effective diagnostic assays that complement RT-qPCR should be introduced after thoroughly evaluating their performance upon various disease phases, viral load, and sample storage conditions. Objective We investigated the correlation of cycle threshold (Ct) value, which implies the viral load and infection phase, and the storage condition of the clinical specimen with the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 through our newly developed in-house rapid enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) system. Method Naso-oropharyngeal samples of 339 COVID-19 suspected cases were collected and evaluated through RT-qPCR that were stored up to 30 days in different conditions (i.e. −80°C, −20°C and initially at 4°C followed by −80°C). The clinical specimens were evaluated with our in-house ELISA system after finalizing the assay method through checkerboard assay and minimizing the signal/noise ratio. Result The ELISA system showed the highest sensitivity (92.9%) for samples with Ct ≤30 and preserving at −80°C temperature. The sensitivity reduced proportionally with increasing Ct value and preserving temperature. However, the specificity ranged between 98.3% and 100%. Conclusion The results indicate the necessity of early infection phase diagnosis and lower temperature preservation of samples to perform rapid antigen ELISA tests.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) requires mass immunization to control the symptoms and global spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Data from developed countries reported a high prevalence of parental COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. However, parental vaccine hesitancy data in countries with low and middle income are scarce. The goal of this study was to assess the prevalence of parental vaccine hesitancy and identify subgroups with higher odds of vaccine hesitancy. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on parents of children aged <18 years from October 10, 2021, to October 31, 2021. Parents aged ≥18 years underwent face-to-face interviews in randomly selected places in Bangladesh using a vaccine hesitancy questionnaire. Predictors were identified using binary logistic regression analysis. Results: Data from 2633 eligible parents were analyzed. Overall, 42.8% reported COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy for their youngest child. The final model suggested that children's age, parent's age, religion, occupation, monthly household income, permanent address, living location, the status of tobacco use, adherence with the regular government vaccination programs (other than COVID-19), perception about COVID-19 vaccine efficacy among Bangladeshi children, self-vaccination intention, report about family members' illness or death from COVID-19, and perceived COVID-19 threat were the independent predictors of parental vaccine hesitancy. Conclusions: Vaccine hesitation varied based on sociodemographic characteristics, religion, behavior, and perceived COVID-19 threat. Therefore, interventions focused on addressing vaccine hesitancy among subgroups are warranted.