Is there a Role for Pharmacist in Safety Monitoring of Vaccines?

Abstract:

India has approximately 7.4 million unimmunized children and responsible for more than five lakhs deaths annually. News about Adverse Events Following Immunizations (AEFIs) is one of the important barriers in India to lag behind in vaccination coverage along with lack of awareness and cultural diversity of parents. The expectation from vaccines are very high unlike drugs and any reports on adverse vaccine events may damage the public confidence in vaccination program. As an important member in the health care team, pharmacists can help the regulators in responding to the any news on AEFIs by investigating and reporting each and every adverse events which they observe following any vaccine administration. The causality assessment helps to categorizes the adverse events, in turn helps for the effective AEFI communication to the public in the right time.

Key words: Pharmacist, Safety monitoring, Vaccine pharmacovigilance, Causality Assessment.