COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness Against Hospitalizations and Severe Outcomes in Kosovo, 2022-2024: A Test-Negative Case-Control Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Few studies have evaluated COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness (VE) in middle-income countries, particularly in eastern Europe. We aimed to estimate COVID-19 VE against SARS-CoV-2-confirmed hospitalizations and severe outcomes in Kosovo.

Methods

We conducted a test-negative case-control study using data from Kosovo's severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) sentinel surveillance system from January 2022 to June 2024. We enrolled adult patients aged ≥ 18 years hospitalized with SARI. From all patients, we collected clinical data, vaccination history, and a nasopharyngeal specimen, which was tested for SARS-CoV-2 using RT-PCR. SARS-CoV-2-positive patients were cases; those testing negative were controls. We estimated VE overall and against severe outcomes (requiring oxy

SUBMITTER: Kryeziu B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12417103 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature