Human Vaccines
Volume 7, Issue 9   September 2011
http://www.landesbioscience.com/journals/vaccines/toc/volume/7/issue/8/

Commentaries
Adverse events following immunization: Easily preventable in developing countries
Ramesh Verma, Pardeep Khanna, Mohan Bairwa, Suraj Chawla, Shankar Prinja and Meena Rajput

The development of vaccines is one of the most important achievements in public health for reducing morbidity and mortality due to communicable diseases in children. As the incidence of vaccine-preventable diseases is reduced by vaccination, the general public becomes increasingly concerned about the safety associated with vaccines. BCG, DPT, Polio, Measles, Hepatitis B, Hib and their various combinations may cause transient minor adverse events including swelling, redness or soreness at the injection site, and low-grade fever, crying and irritability (in infants). The adverse events caused by an error/accident in vaccination programs as these relate to manufacturing, handling, cold chain maintenance, vaccination schedule or administration are program errors. They are generally preventable and detract from the overall benefit of the immunization program.

AEFI (adverse event following immunization) surveillance allows the vaccination program to monitor the occurrence of adverse events and to differentiate the true from the false AEFI. The system will also ensures quality by monitoring program error, increasing public confidence, and helping to develop capacity to manage ‘crisis’ events within the vaccination program. These incidents, which result in needless deaths or life-threatening illness and damage to vaccination programs, should be generally preventable if proper reconstitution of vaccines and proper handling procedures are followed.