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Alsous MM, Ali AA, Al-Azzam SI, Abdel Jalil MH, Al-Obaidi HJ, Al-Abbadi EI, Hussain ZK, Jirjees FJ. Knowledge and awareness about human papillomavirus infection and its vaccination among women in Arab communities. Sci Rep 2021; 11:786. [PMID: 33436959 PMCID: PMC7804285 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-80834-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2020] [Accepted: 12/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Cervical cancer (CC) is one of the most common types of cancer that affect females worldwide with hundreds of thousands of women dying annually due to this disease, mainly in developing countries. Infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) is the main risk factor for this cancer. There are no public awareness and national immunization programs in most Arab countries. This study aimed to investigate the knowledge and awareness about the HPV vaccine among females in four Arab countries and their acceptance to receive the vaccine. A cross-sectional study was conducted in several Arab countries: Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Iraq. Respondents that fulfilled the desired criteria and were willing to participate in the study were asked to fill out the survey. Knowledge and awareness were assessed using 13 questions. Ethical approvals were given from the four countries. A total of 3658 individuals participated in the study; however, 2804 responses were included in the analysis and more than one third of participants (n = 1007) were aged between 18 and 25 years old. This study revealed poor awareness and knowledge of the participants about HPV and its vaccine among all four countries’ participants with relatively better knowledge among participants from the UAE. Participants who are younger (18–25 years old), have a postgraduate education, have an education or career related to the medical field, or had a Pap smear in the last three years tend to have higher knowledge about the HPV vaccine compared to others. Poor knowledge and awareness findings in this study were expected, considering the lack of public education campaigns regarding the HPV virus coupled with the absence of the HPV vaccination from the national immunization schedule in three participating countries (Jordan, Qatar, and Iraq). It is recommended that there is a need to provide national educational campaigns about the HPV vaccine to the public in all Arab populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mervat M Alsous
- Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan.
| | - Ahlam A Ali
- Medical Biology Centre, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK
| | - Sayer I Al-Azzam
- Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan
| | - Mariam H Abdel Jalil
- Department of Biopharmaceutics and Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
| | - Hala J Al-Obaidi
- Clinical and Practice Research Group, School of Pharmacy, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK
| | - Esraa I Al-Abbadi
- Qatar National Cancer Registry, National Cancer Program, Ministry of Public Health, Doha, Qatar
| | - Zainab K Hussain
- Department of Biology, College of Science, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq
| | - Feras J Jirjees
- Department of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmacotherapeutics, College of Pharmacy, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
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Jirjees FJ, Dallal Bashi YH, Al-Obaidi HJ. COVID-19 Death and BCG Vaccination Programs Worldwide. Tuberc Respir Dis (Seoul) 2020; 84:13-21. [PMID: 32883062 PMCID: PMC7801810 DOI: 10.4046/trd.2020.0063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2020] [Accepted: 09/04/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Several clinical trials are being conducted worldwide to investigate the protective effect of the bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine against death in healthcare providers who are working directly with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. Clinical studies suggested that certain live vaccines, particularly the BCG vaccine, could reduce the mortality due to other diseases caused by non-targeted pathogens, most probably through the nonspecific effects (heterologous effects). By the end of May 2020, the available information on the COVID-19 pandemic indicated the great effect of the BCG vaccine in reducing the number of COVID-19 death cases. The occurrence of death due to COVID-19 was found to be 21-fold lower in countries with a national BCG vaccination policy than in countries without such a policy, based on the medians of COVID-19 death case per 1 million of the population in these two groups of countries (p<0.001, MannWhitney test). Therefore, it can be concluded that the early establishment of a BCG vaccination policy in any country is a key element in reducing the number of COVID-19 and tuberculosis death cases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Feras J Jirjees
- College of Pharmacy, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
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