title: Annual report on surveillance of adverse events following immunisation in Australia, 2006.
abstract: This report summarises Australian passive surveillance data for adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) reported to the Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee for 2006, and describes reporting trends over the seven-year period 2000 to 2006. There were 779 AEFI records for vaccines administered in 2006. This is an annual AEFI reporting rate of 3.8 per 100,000 population, the lowest since 2002 and a 10% decrease compared with 2005 (869 AEFI records; 4.3 records per 100,000 population). Dose-based AEFI reporting rates in 2006 were 1.9 per 100,000 doses of influenza vaccine for adults aged > or = 18 years, 19.1 per 100,000 doses of pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine for those aged > or = 65 years and 12.5 per 100,000 doses of scheduled vaccines for children aged < 7 years. Trend data showed transient increases in reporting of AEFI following the introduction of DTPa-IPV combination vaccines in November 2005 for children aged < 7 years. The majority of the 779 AEFI records for 2006 described non-serious events while 11% (n = 85) described AEFIs defined as serious. There was one report of death temporally associated with receipt of dTpa-IPV and typhoid vaccines in an adult with a history of a chronic medical condition. The most frequently reported individual AEFI was injection site reaction in children following a fourth or fifth dose of acellular pertussis-containing vaccine (70 reports per 100,000 doses). The data confirm the low rate of AEFI reported in Australia and demonstrate the ability of the system to detect and investigate signals such as those associated with changes in immunisation programs.
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases, University of Sydney, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, New South Wales. glendal@chw.edu.au
authors.forename: Glenda L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Lawrence
authors.forename: Padmasiri E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Aratchige
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Boyd
authors.forename: Peter B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: McIntyre
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Gold
mesh_terms: D016907:Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012621:Seasons; D012744:Sex Ratio; D013997:Time Factors; D014611:Vaccination / Q000009:adverse effects*; D014612:Vaccines / Q000009:adverse effects*
chemical_list: D014612:Vaccines