The term “immunization stress-related responses (ISRR)” covers an entire spectrum of manifestations to a stress response in the context of immunization. Individual responses to stress vary from person to person or in groups and may change according to time or context either as solitary events or as clusters. With increasing attention to such events in both traditional media and social media, they have even led to disruption of a country’s immunization programs in some instances. In this manual and synopsis, ISRR is explained according to a conceptual biopsychosocial model. They offer guidance to program managers and health professionals on prevention, identification and response to stress-related responses following immunization.

• ISRR Manual
• ISRR Synopsis

The Global Vaccine Safety Summit is a 2-day event, from 2 to 3 December 2019, organized by the World Health Organization and held at the WHO's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
In the year that marks the 20th anniversary of the WHO’s Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS), the Global Vaccine Safety Summit will be an opportunity to take stock of GACVS accomplishments and look towards priorities for the next decade.
At the Summit, WHO will present the Global Vaccine Safety Blueprint 2.0 strategy 2021-2030 to key stakeholders and collect their input for the final version, due for publication in the new year.

• Summit page

On 15-16 October 2019, 97 participants from 28 countries participated in the Vaccine Safety Net Workshop to share knowledge on how to promote reliable and compelling vaccine safety content and use data and analytics to improve vaccine and vaccine safety information and communication online.

For the first time ever, 4 WHO’s divisions, UNICEF, CDC, GAVI, member states, technology companies (Pinterest, Facebook, YouTube, Microsoft and Google), academia and VSN members were all in one room to strengthen ties paving the way for collaborations to surface trustworthy, science based, high quality vaccine safety information in the digital sphere.

Starting with information on the vaccines administered and the observed adverse event following immunization (AEFI), the newly developed AEFI investigation assistance module supports high quality field investigations. Visiting the pertinent stakeholders, asking the right questions and documenting investigations accurately is assisted by providing investigators with essential documents and background information. The software also allows the compilation of a field investigation dossier for sharing with experts in charge of causality assessment.

Vaccine misinformation has the potential to impact public health and is as contagious and dangerous as the diseases it helps to spread.
To tackle incorrect and harmful misinformation about vaccines, Pinterest has introduced a new search experience which only shows evidence-based content from internationally recognized health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Vaccine Safety Net.
Pinterest took this approach because they recognized they were not medical professionals and believe that showing vaccine misinformation alongside resources from public health experts was not responsible.

• WHO Pinterest
• VSN Pinterest

31 participants attended a workshop in Kabul, Afghanistan from 14 to 16 April 2019 aimed at streamlining the adverse event following immunization (AEFI) reporting and investigation procedures. The workshop was coordinated by the National Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Authority (NMHRA), National EPI program and other stakeholders and supported by WHO Afghanistan Office. The workshop enabled consensus building between stakeholders, defined their roles and responsibilities to develop a sustainable vaccine safety surveillance system in Afghanistan. Participants were also oriented on procedures for vaccine registration and market authorization. Afghanistan plans to update the national AEFI guidelines, establish a national AEFI committee, strengthen regulatory capacity, conduct trainings and further strengthen the health system.

PAHO conducted a meeting of experts at Bogota, Colombia for updating the AEFI (ESAVI) surveillance guidelines in the Americas on 14 and 15 March 2019. 27 representatives from the NRA, EPI and the Public Health institutes from 5 countries: Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Peru, and the United States of America participated. The new AEFI case definition and the revised WHO AEFI causality assessment methodology were discussed. The US CDC shared experiences on VAERS and VSD. Peru and Chile shared their experiences in handling of the yellow fever related AEFI. Mexico also shared their experience in data sharing between the Regulatory Authority and Immunization Program . This is the first step to the development of a comprehensive AEFI (ESAVI) surveillance guidelines for the Americas.

The seventh meeting of the Global Vaccine Safety Initiative (GVSI) was held in Santiago, Chile from 8 to 9 October 2018, hosted by the Institute of Public Health of Chile, together with the Ministry of Health. It gathered more than 100 participants from immunization programs and regulatory agencies from all WHO regions, technical agencies, donors and industry. The meeting was geared towards innovations in vaccine pharmacovigilance in preparation for the post-2020 WHO immunization strategy.
Highlights included understanding global transitions that will affect immunization programs and vigilance, progress with global vaccine pharmacovigilance, and collaborative models between public and private sectors.

WHO organized a workshop in Monrovia from 15 to 17 January 2019. The workshop was on Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI): improving reporting and data quality and how to use the WHO methodology for AEFI causality assessment. Eleven participants were from John F Kennedy Hospital, Redemption Hospital, Liberia Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Authority (LMHRA), Liberia Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), Department of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology, and WHO Country office. Two participants came from The Gambia (Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital). Interactive sessions with group exercises on serious AEFI cases were facilitated by experts from WHO HQ, IST AFRO and Ghana.