• Association of Prior SARS-CoV-2 Infection With Risk of Breakthrough Infection Following mRNA Vaccination in Qatar. 

      Abu-Raddad, Laith J; Chemaitelly, Hiam; Ayoub, Houssein H; Yassine, Hadi M; Benslimane, Fatiha M; ... more authors ( American Medical Association , 2021 , Article)
      The effect of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection on vaccine protection remains poorly understood. To assess protection from SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infection after mRNA vaccination among persons with vs without prior SARS-CoV-2 ...
    • BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in Qatar. 

      Tang, Patrick; Hasan, Mohammad R; Chemaitelly, Hiam; Yassine, Hadi M; Benslimane, Fatiha M; ... more authors ( Nature Researc , 2021 , Article)
      With the global expansion of the highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 Delta (B.1.617.2) variant, we conducted a matched test-negative case-control study to assess the real-world effectiveness of COVID-19 messenger RNA vaccines ...
    • Characterizing the effective reproduction number during the COVID-19 pandemic: Insights from Qatar’s experience 

      Bsat, Raghid; Chemaitelly, Hiam; Coyle, Peter; Tang, Patrick; Hasan, Mohammad R; ... more authors ( International Society of Global Health , 2022 , Article)
      Background: The effective reproduction number, Rt, is a tool to track and understand epidemic dynamics. This investigation of Rt estimations was conducted to guide the national COVID-19 response in Qatar, from the onset ...
    • Evaluation of reverse transcription-loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) for detecting SARS-CoV-2 in clinical, environmental and animal samples. 

      Benslimane, Fatiha M.; Al-Jamal, Ola; Boughattas, Sonia|Al Thani, Asmaa A; Yassine, Hadi M. ( Qatar University Press , 2020 , Poster)
      Background: First described 20 years ago by Notomi et al., the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay is robust, rapid and straightforward, yet retains high sensitivity and specificity. These features have ...
    • mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against the B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 variants and severe COVID-19 disease in Qatar 

      Chemaitelly, Hiam; Yassine, Hadi M.; Benslimane, Fatiha M.; Al Khatib, Hebah A.; Tang, Patrick; ... more authors (2021 , Article)
      The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic continues to be a global health concern. The mRNA-1273 (Moderna) vaccine was reported to have an efficacy of 94.1% at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 due to infection with ‘wild-type’ variants in a ...
    • Nanopore Sequencing SARS-CoV-2 genome in Qatar 

      Benslimane, Fatiha M.; Al Khatib, Hebah; Albatesh, Dana; Al-Jamal, Ola; Boughattas, Sonia; ... more authors ( Qatar University Press , 2020 , Poster)
      Background: The current pandemic, COVID-19, is cause by an RNA coronavirus that was recently identified as SARS-CoV-2. RNA viruses tend to have a high mutation rate; the rate is around a million times greater than that of ...
    • One Year of SARS-CoV-2: Genomic Characterization of COVID-19 Outbreak in Qatar 

      Benslimane, Fatiha M; Al Khatib, Hebah A; Al-Jamal, Ola; Albatesh, Dana; Boughattas, Sonia; ... more authors ( Frontiers , 2021 , Article)
      Qatar, a country with a strong health system and a diverse population consisting mainly of expatriate residents, has experienced two large waves of COVID-19 outbreak. In this study, we report on 2634 SARS-CoV-2 whole-genome ...
    • Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA BNT162b2 Covid-19 vaccine protection against variants of concern after one versus two doses. 

      Abu-Raddad, Laith J; Chemaitelly, Hiam; Yassine, Hadi M; Benslimane, Fatiha M; Al Khatib, Hebah A; ... more authors ( Oxford University Press , 2021 , Article)
      Strategies for rolling out vaccination against Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) varied across countries. A key question is whether delaying administration of the second vaccine dose to vaccinate the largest number of ...
    • Platforms Exploited for SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Development. 

      Mathew, Shilu; Faheem, Muhammed; Hassain, Neeraja A; Benslimane, Fatiha M; Thani, Asmaa A Al; ... more authors ( MDPI , 2020 , Article Review)
      The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the only zoonotic-origin coronavirus (CoV) that has reached the pandemic stage. The virus uses its spike (S) glycoprotein to attach to the host cells ...
    • Protection against the omicron variant from previous SARS-CoV-2 infection 

      Altarawneh, Heba N.; Chemaitelly, Hiam; Hasan, Mohammad R.; Ayoub, Houssein H.; Qassim, Suelen; ... more authors ( Massachusetts Medical Society , 2022 , Other)
      Natural infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) elicits strong protection against reinfection with the B.1.1.7 (alpha),1,2 B.1.351 (beta),1 and B.1.617.2 (delta)3 variants. However, the ...
    • Relative infectiousness of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine breakthrough infections, reinfections, and primary infections. 

      Abu-Raddad, Laith J; Chemaitelly, Hiam; Ayoub, Houssein H; Tang, Patrick; Coyle, Peter; ... more authors ( Springer , 2022 , Article)
      SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infections in vaccinated individuals and in those who had a prior infection have been observed globally, but the transmission potential of these infections is unknown. The RT-qPCR cycle threshold ...
    • Severity, Criticality, and Fatality of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Beta Variant 

      Abu-Raddad, Laith J; Chemaitelly, Hiam; Ayoub, Houssein H; Yassine, Hadi M; Benslimane, Fatiha M; ... more authors ( Oxford Academic , 2021 , Article)
      Beta (B.1.351) variant COVID-19 disease was investigated in Qatar. Compared to Alpha (B.1.1.7) variant, odds of progressing to severe disease were 1.24-fold (95% CI: 1.11-1.39) higher for Beta. Odds of progressing to ...
    • Waning of BNT162b2 Vaccine Protection against SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Qatar. 

      Chemaitelly, Hiam; Tang, Patrick; Hasan, Mohammad R; AlMukdad, Sawsan; Yassine, Hadi M; ... more authors ( Massachusetts Medical Society , 2021 , Article)
      Waning of vaccine protection against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection or coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is a concern. The persistence of BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine ...
    • Within-host diversity of SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19 patients with variable disease severities 

      Al Khatib, Hebah A.; Benslimane, Fatiha M.; El Bashir, Israa; Al Thani, Asmaa A; Yassine, Hadi M. ( Qatar University Press , 2020 , Poster)
      Background: The ongoing pandemic of SARS-COV-2 has already infected more than eight million people worldwide. The majority of COVID-19 patients are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. Yet, about 15% of the cases ...
    • Within-Host Diversity of SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19 Patients With Variable Disease Severities. 

      Al Khatib, Hebah A; Benslimane, Fatiha M; Elbashir, Israa E; Coyle, Peter V; Al Maslamani, Muna A; ... more authors ( Frontiers Media , 2020 , Article)
      The ongoing pandemic of SARS-COV-2 has already infected more than eight million people worldwide. The majority of COVID-19 patients either are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. Yet, about 15% of the cases experience ...