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Vaccine safety inquiries to the centers for disease control and prevention's immunization safety office
Methods: Vaccine safety inquiries received by phone, email and mail to ISO are tracked and categorized in an electronic database. We conducted descriptive analysis of inquiries received from July 2009 through December 2012, and reviewed trends since 2002.
Results: From July 2009 through December 2012, we received 667 vaccine safety inquiries. Vaccines most often asked about were seasonal influenza (27%), human papillomavirus (9%) and 2009 (H1N1) influenza (8%). Healthcare providers submitted 49% of inquiries. Frequent topics included the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) (19%), neurologic adverse events (11%) and vaccine administration errors (6%). The most common reasons for inquiries were requests for VAERS data searches (43%), medical advice (18%) and general information (14%). ISO referred 36 complex clinical case inquiries from healthcare providers to the ISO Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment (CISA) Project for expert review. Data for all years indicated that autism-related inquiries peaked at 7% of total inquiries in 2005 and fell to 0.5% by 2012. Inquiries about vaccine administration errors increased from 1% in 2002 to 7% in 2012.
Conclusions: Inquiries submitted to ISO indicate vaccine safety concerns in the community and can help guide research, communication and education activities. In addition to responding to inquiries and referring selected cases to CISA, ISO develops initiatives to address topics like administration errors and preventive strategies for adverse events following vaccination.
Learning Areas:
Public health or related nursingLearning Objectives:
Describe key topics and trends in vaccine safety inquiries that are received by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Immunizaton Safety Office
Keyword(s): Immunizations, Safety
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a nurse epidemiologist with the CDC's Immunization Safety Office and have been in this position for approximatlely 12 years.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.