Investigators: Carolyn Finucane, Chris Blyth, Parveen Fathima, Peter Jacoby, Peter Richmond, Tom Snelling
Vaccines prevent millions of deaths worldwide each year and have dramatically reduced deaths and disability from infectious diseases in Australia. While we continue to receive these benefits through immunisation programs, it is vital that we monitor vaccines to ensure continuing safety and to maintain public confidence in immunisation. An adverse event following immunisation is any unfavourable and unintended symptom in a person who has been given a vaccine. In many cases, adverse events reported in the days or weeks after vaccination have nothing to do with the vaccine itself but are a 'coincidence'. AusVaxSafety monitors all adverse events, even those not caused by the vaccine. By monitoring all adverse events occurring after vaccination, and investigating those that are unusual, any unexpected events will be identified early to allow effective public health action.
Project partner: Commonwealth Department of Health