Immunisation adverse events clinics.

As the incidence of vaccine preventable diseases has declined, and more new vaccines are marketed, adverse events following immunisation have attracted greater attention from the public and from health care providers. At a population level, post-licensure monitoring of vaccine safety in many countries relies on notifications to passive surveillance systems, such as the Australian Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee (ADRAC). Australia is better supplied with services to investigate and manage adverse events in individual patients through special immunisation services than most comparable countries. This article provides a brief background to the establishment of clinics that address adverse events following immunisation (AEFI), and describes the work of the Immunisation Adverse Events Clinic at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.