- About the Immunization Safety Office (US CDC).
Centers for Disease Control and PreventionDescribes the activities of the Immunization Safety Office.
- Canada’s eight-step vaccine safety program: Vaccine literacy.
MacDonald N Pickering L.
Canadian Paediatric Society; 2009Immunization to control serious infectious diseases has been one of the outstanding achievements of preventive health medicine. But hand in hand with the growing success of vaccine prevention of major scourges such as polio, measles, invasive Haemophilus influenzae type b disease and hepatitis B has come a rise in parental concerns regarding the safety of vaccines in a number of countries. Some parents are now so troubled by vaccine safety that they are choosing not to have their children immunized, sometimes with tragic results.
Erosion of public trust in vaccines seems to be occurring despite more than two decades of effort to educate the public about the risks of vaccine-preventable diseases and the benefits and excellent safety profiles of the recommended childhood vaccines. An expanded approach to ensure and, if necessary, restore public confidence in vaccines is needed. Health care providers who are involved in immunization delivery have a key role to play. The present Paediatric Infectious Disease Note outlines a strategy for helping health care providers increase public trust in vaccines.
- Clinical safety issues of measles, mumps and rubella vaccines. (PDF)
Afzal M.A.,
Minor P.D.,
Schild G.C.
- Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2000;78(2):199-204.
World Health Organization
» PubMed: 10743285Investigates the possible link between measles virus and measles vaccines and juvenile Crohn disease by reviewing the outcomes of several laboratory investigations which were carried out independently to identify the presence or absence of measles virus in the intestinal tissues derived from cases of inflammatory bowel disease.
- Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS).
World Health OrganizationDeveloped to respond promptly, efficiently, and with scientific rigour to vaccine safety issues of potential global importance.
- Immunization safety (WHO).
World Health OrganizationProvides access to factual information, global policies, best practices and resource documents, including training and communication material, in the area of immunization safety.
- Immunization: Get the facts. (PDF: 389k)
CCIAP .
Canadian Coalition for Immunization Awareness & Promotion; 2010This pamphlet provides information and answers four common questions and misconceptions about vaccine safety, vaccine contents, and multiple injections.
- Immunize your kids! (CCIAP). (PDF: 100k)
Canadian Coalition for Immunization Awareness & Promotion; 2009Describes how immunization works and lists recommended vaccinations for children. For best results print this brochure on letter-sized paper. (Choose File > Page Setup; under Orientation pick Landscape, and in the drop-down menu, under Paper pick Letter. Click OK and then print as usual.
- IMPACT : Canadian Immunization Monitoring Program ACTive.
Canadian Paediatric SocietyIMPACT is a pediatric hospital-based national active surveillance network for vaccine-preventable associated adverse events, vaccine failures and selected infectious diseases in children that are, or are soon to be, vaccine preventable.
- Importance of background rates of disease in assessment of vaccine safety during mass immunisation with pandemic H1N1 influenza vaccines. (PDF: 109k)
Lancet .
- Lancet 2009.
LancetBecause of the advent of a new influenza A H1N1 strain, many countries have begun mass immunisation programmes. Awareness of the background rates of possible adverse events will be a crucial part of assessment of possible vaccine safety concerns and will help to separate legitimate safety concerns from events that are temporally associated with but not caused by vaccination. We identified background rates of selected medical events for several countries. Rates of disease events varied by age, sex, method of ascertainment, and geography. Highly visible health conditions, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome, spontaneous abortion, or even death, will occur in coincident temporal association with novel influenza vaccination. On the basis of the reviewed data, if a cohort of 10 million individuals was vaccinated in the UK, 21·5 cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome and 5·75 cases of sudden death would be expected to occur within 6 weeks of vaccination as coincident background cases. In female vaccinees in the USA, 86·3 cases of optic neuritis per 10 million population would be expected within 6 weeks of vaccination. 397 per 1 million vaccinated pregnant women would be predicted to have a spontaneous abortion within 1 day of vaccination.
- Influenza Bulletin # 1: Influenza vaccine safety. (PDF: 407k)
Canadian Coalition for Immunization Awareness & Promotion; 2008
- Institute for Vaccine Safety (Johns Hopkins U).
Institute for Vaccine Safety, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public HealthDiscusses current vaccine issues including thimerosal, polio vaccine and HIV. Provides an independent assessment of vaccines and vaccine safety to help guide decision makers and educate physicians, the public and the media about key issues surrounding the safety of vaccines.
- Institute for Vaccine Safety (U.S.).
Offit Paul A,
Bell Louis M.
IDG Books Worldwide; 1999Provides a history of vaccines and gives information on the diseases that can be controlled through vaccinations, and the risks and benefits associated with each vaccine.
- Lack of Association Between Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccination and Autism in Children: A Case-Control Study.
Mrozek-Budnyn Kieltka, Majewska.
- Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal 2009.
Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society
» PubMed: 19522237The first objective of the study was to determine whether there is a relationship between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination and autism in children. The second objective was to examine whether the risk of autism differs between use of MMR and the single measles vaccine... The study provides evidence against the association of autism with either MMR or a single measles vaccine.
- Monitoring signals for vaccine safety: the assessment of individual adverse event reports by an expert advisory committee. (PDF: 101k)
Collet J.-P.,
MacDonald N.,
Cashman N.,
Pless R. /
Advisory Committee on Causality Assessment
- Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2000;78(2):178-85.
World Health Organization
» PubMed: 10743282Describes a standardized evaluation instrument, the “Causality Assessment Form,” that can be used to monitor vaccine safety.
- Understanding vaccine safety: immunization remains our best defense against deadly disease (US).
Meadows Michelle. /
US Food and Drug Administration
- FDA Consumer magazine 2001;35(4):18-23.
» PubMed: 11692879Provides information for consumers about immunization. Suggests five steps to follow when vaccinating.
- US VAERS bibliography: 1999-2007.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention /
Food and Drug Administration
Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting SystemLists articles that focus on issues and research related to vaccines, vaccinations, and immunization.
- Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (US VAERS).
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention /
Food and Drug Administration
Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting SystemProvides a nationwide mechanism by which adverse events following immunization may be reported, analyzed and made available to the public.
- Vaccine safety (PHAC).
Public Health Agency of CanadaProvides news, an a-z topic index, links to federal, provincial and territorial regulatory bodies dealing with vaccine safety.
- Vaccine Safety (US CDC).
Centers for Disease Control and PreventionDiscusses vaccine safety and offers links to additional information.
- Vaccine safety publications (US CDC).
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2005Presents a Micromedia Flashpaper list of Immunization Safety Office publications for 2005.