Vaccine Surveillance
Recent years have brought new challenges to the field of vaccine safety surveillance.
Vaccine Surveillance Group
Recent years have brought new challenges to the field of vaccine safety surveillance. Direct introduction of new vaccines into areas with emergent need has begun with the development of vaccines against dengue fever, ebola, and malaria, leading to a shift in the burden of responsibility in the detection of safety signals in the early post-marketing period to pharmacovigilance systems with more limited resources.
Webinar
April 20, 2023 15.00 UTC | 11:00 EDT | 17.00 CEST
Free webinar for ISoP members, organized by the Vaccines SIG, in collaboration with the African Chapter and presented by:
Talya Shragai,
US Centers for Disease Control
Joel Adegoke,
US Centers for Disease Control
All webinars are recorded and are available for ISoP members.
A number of recent vaccine related safety concerns which have received substantial public attention (Pandemrix and narcolepsy, Dengvaxia and severe dengue) have suggested the presence of individual-level risk factors for the occurrence of these adverse outcomes, and the field of systems immunology has emerged to describe the complexity of the immune system which may allow us to further understand how vaccines can cause adverse events. And lastly, recent surveys have documented concerning decreases in public confidence in vaccine safety, and the WHO has declared vaccine hesitancy as one of the ten threats to global public health in 2019.
Another important issue in global vaccine safety surveillance is separation of responsibilities of national pharmacovigilance centres and national immunisation programs in those countries in which vaccines are administered via WHO sponsored public health programmes. A consequence of this separation can be that reports of AEFI are not pooled within one national database for optimal signal detection work and sharing with the global safety community.
Against this background, in 2019, the ISoP Executive Committee has encouraged the creation and development of a new SIG in ISoP dedicated to exploring issues relating to vaccine pharmacovigilance. It is planned to formally launch the SIG at the 19th annual meeting of ISoP in Bogotá in October 2019.
The members of this group have a specific interest in vaccine safety.
ISoP Webinar Series 2021
COVID-19 vaccine vigilance.
Organized by the ISoP Latin-American chapter, the Vaccines SIG, and the Israel Chapter.
This second webinar series is free for ISoP members who can access directly through the Member-only section of the website.
Not yet a member? please join ISoP to attend these and other webinars.
- 04 February 2021 at 14.00 UTC
Margarita del Val: Immunology of COVID-19. COVID-19 immunization. - 10 February 2021 at 14.00 UTC
Jean-Michel Dogné: Characteristics of approved vaccines. Identified and potential risks. - 18 February at 14.00 UTC
Saad Shakir: Observations and experience on the vaccination and treatment of COVID-19. - 25 February 2021 at 14.00 UTC
Rebecca Chandler: Efforts of the UMC to support global vaccine safety surveillance.
Aim and Objectives
The overall aim of the Vaccines SIG is to provide a focal point for ISoP members interested in vaccine safety to share and provide information on relevant issues and developments and to support vaccine pharmacovigilance.
The key objectives are:
- To provide bi-monthly news and information bulletins by email to Vaccine SIG members
- To organise, where possible, a session at the ISoP annual meeting each year on the topic of vaccine safety
- To advise the ISoP Executive Committee, where required, on issues relating to vaccine safety
- To foster collaboration between national pharmacovigilance centres and national immunisation programmes
- To encourage collaboration with persons working within the field of vaccinology to expand knowledge of how vaccines cause adverse reactions
- To develop and support improved approaches to communication regarding benefits and risk of vaccines, in particular as our knowledge of inter-individual variation in immune responses, and risk for AEFI, grows
Advancements, ongoing projects and future steps
The CommSIG held its members’ round table discussions during the annual meetings in Tianjin and Prague and has regular email-based discussions. A number of work streams, led by various CommSIG members, have been set up to ensure achieving the defined deliverables in each year. These cover organizing interactive sessions at the ISoP annual meetings and ISoP training activities, e.g. based on chapter 14 of the WHO-ISoP Pharmacovigilance Curriculum2, as well disseminating key messages from the CommSIG to other forums.
2 See JĂĽrgen Beckmann, Ulrich Hagemann, Priya Bahri, Andrew Bate, Ian W. Boyd, Gerald J. Dal Pan, Brian D. Edwards, I. Ralph Edwards, Kenneth Hartigan-Go, Marie Lindquist, John McEwen, Yola Moride, Sten Olsson, Shanthi N. Pal, Rachida Soulaymani-Bencheikh, Marco Tuccori, Claudia P. Vaca, Ian C.K. Wong. Teaching Pharmacovigilance: the WHO-ISoP Core Elements of a Comprehensive Modular Curriculum. Drug Saf (2014) 37:743-759 (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40264-014-0216-1)
In 2015, a session was organized successfully for the ISoP Annual Meeting in Prague with invited experts from the communication psychology and healthcare sciences. The session’s title was “Patient safety through dialogue – how to better connect pharmacovigilance and healthcare?” and a report for publication is under preparation.
In October 2016, a session was organized at the ISoP Annual Meeting in Agra with contributors from Asia and other world regions, sharing important projects in hospitals and the public domain under the title of: Risk communication – “Snakes and Ladders” and a Strategic Approach to Risk Minimisation in Healthcare”. A publication is under preparation.
Membership of the ISoP Vaccines SIG
Any member of ISoP who has an interest in vaccine safety is very welcome to join our group. We hope the group will attract members from several different continents, and that there will be strong representation from countries in which herbal and traditional medicines are an important part of healthcare, either locally for individuals, or as part of an organised health system.
It isn’t necessary to have particular expertise or experience with vaccines to join, just a healthy interest in and enthusiasm for the topic. That said, we would welcome members with expertise in the immunology, vaccinology, and immunisation policy and risk communication.
If you would like to join the ISoP Vaccines Special Interest Group please contact Rebecca Chandler by e-mail.
Would you like to join or learn more about this group? Contact us at administration@isoponline.org
