Public trust in vaccines hinges on their safety – but to make sure vaccines are safe, we must have systems in place to detect and manage any side effects. Dr Madhava Ram Balakrishnan, medical officer for vaccine safety at the World Health Organization, discusses how to build an effective vaccine surveillance system and how to respond to safety crises when they occur.

Tune in to find out:

• How safety surveillance differs between vaccines and drugs
• What the most common side effects of vaccines are
• How to address the public’s concerns on vaccine safety

Want to know more?

The World Health Organization offers free manuals on surveillance and causality assessment of adverse events following immunisation (AEFI).

They also maintain an AEFI causality assessment software where you can practice on real or sample cases, and an online course on the principles and processes of AEFI causality assessment.

In the BMJ Global Health, Madhava Balakrishnan and colleagues review how online communication affects immunisation stress-related responses and how to address public anxieties around vaccine safety.

For more on vaccines and risk communication, check out these episodes from the Drug Safety Matters archive:

• How to talk about risks
• Talking about vaccine safety
• Convincing the vaccine hesitant
• Keeping vaccines safe

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