Assessment of causality of individual adverse events following immunization (AEFI): A WHO tool for global use

• Published in: Vaccine Vol. 31; no. 44; pp. 5041 - 5046
• Main Authors: Tozzi, Alberto E, Asturias, Edwin J, Balakrishnan, Madhava Ram, Halsey, Neal A, Law, Barbara, Zuber, Patrick L.F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 17-10-2013; Elsevier; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Advisory committees; Algorithms; Allergy and Immunology; Applied microbiology; Biological and medical sciences; Causality; Checklist; childhood; Classification; Decision Support Systems, Clinical; Drug dosages; Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions - epidemiology; education; experts; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; health care workers; Humans; Immunization; International organizations; Laboratories; Microbiology; Public health; research policy; Safety; Vaccination - adverse effects; Vaccines; Vaccines, antisera, therapeutical immunoglobulins and monoclonal antibodies (general aspects); World Health Organization; Toxicity; Immunization; Vaccine
• ISSN: 0264-410X; 1873-2518
• DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2013.08.087

Highlights • We developed a simple tool to support causality assessment of AEFI • The assessment tool is harmonized with the Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment • The tool has been pilot tested in four middle-income countries • Events investigated with this tools are classified into three final categories • The tool provides results easily translated into information for action