Eurovaccine Stockholm 11 December 2009

Knowledge about attitudes to immunisation

Training of medical and paramedical personnel

Number of websites that fulfill quality criteria set by the GACVS

(the WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety)

The main aims of the VACSATC project have been

to improve immunisation programs with respect to:

Partner institutions

Federal Ministry for Health, Austria

Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Norway

Medical Association of Barcelona, Spain

Institute of Public Health, Romania

National Institute of Hygiene, Poland

Gazi University, Turkey

National Centre for Epidemiology, Hungary

University of Antwerp, Belgium

Sachs Children's Hospital, Sweden

Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease

Control, Sweden

Institute of Public Health,

Slovenia

University of Florence, Italy

Health Protection Inspectorate,

Estonia

Department of Health,

England

National Center of Infectious

and Parasitic Diseases, Bulgaria

VACSATC

- A three year project funded by the European Commission DG SANCO and project partners

Coordinator

Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control

Collaborating institutions

The Spanish Association of Vaccinology, Spain

WHO-Geneva, Switzerland

WHO-EURO, Copenhagen, Denmark

Department of Informatics, Lund University, Sweden

Sociedad Espanola de Medicina y Comunitaria, Madrid, Spain

University of Alicante, Spain

Partners

England Department of Health, London (Coordinating

partner)Estonia Health Protection Inspectorate, Tallinn Norway Norwegian Institute of Public Health PolandNational Institute of Hygiene, Warsaw Romania Institute of Public Health, Bucharest Slovenia Institute of Public Health, Ljubljana Sweden Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control,

Stockholm TurkeyGAZI University, Ankara

Systematic studies of attitudes to pediatric vaccinations are currently only carried out in the UK.

ResultsA collection of guidelines on methods,

briefly describing social research approaches that can be used in this kind of work, has been developed by the Department of Health, UK.

Studies on attitudes to immunisations have been conducted in eight countries.

Partners

Belgium University of Antwerp (Coordinating partner)Bulgaria National Centre of Infectious and Parasitic

Diseases, Sofia ItalyUniversity of Florence Spain Medical Association of Barcelona Romania Institute of Public Health, Bucharest Slovenia Institute of Public Health, Ljubljana Sweden Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control Sweden Sachs Children's Hospital, Stockholm TurkeyGAZI University, Ankara

Training of healthcare personnel varies within and between countries in Europe.

ResultsA survey of current pre-service training

has been conducted in seven countries.

A prototype curriculum has been developed and tested at the University of Antwerp(www.ua.be/cev/summerschool).

The World Health Organisation has through the Vaccine Safety Net (VSN) developed criteria for good information practices. Websites meeting the criteria are accredited.(www.who.int/immunization_safety/safety_quality/vaccine_safety_websites)

ResultsGuidelines for website development have been produced.

Nine VACSATC partners have built or improved websites. Four websites have been submitted for VSN evaluation.

Partners

Austria FM for Health, Vienna www.bmg.gv.at

England Department of Health, Londonwww.immunisation.nhs.uk

Hungary National Centre for Epidemiology, Budapest www.oltasbiztonsag.hu

Norway Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslowww.fhi.no/vaksine

PolandNational Institute of Hygiene, Warsawwww.szczepienia.pzh.gov.pl

Romania Institute of Public Health, Bucharestwww.vaccinnet.ro

SpainMedical Association of Barcelonawww.siemprevacunados.organd www.vacunasesp.org

Sweden Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, Stockholmwww.smi.se/vaccinationer

TurkeyGAZI University, Ankara www.asiguvenligi.net

Partners

SwedenSwedish Institute for Infectious Disease

Control, Stockholm (Coordinating partner)

AustriaFederal Ministry for Health, Vienna Poland National Institute of Hygiene, WarsawRomania Institute of Public Health, Bucharest Turkey GAZI University, Ankara

Epidemiologic studies on vaccine safety can be done by linking information on immunisations to data on outcomes.

ResultsA survey was sent out to ten European

public health agencies with responsibilities for immunisation programs.The results showed that personal

identifiers could be used to link data on vaccinations in five of the responding countries.Potential exists for collaborative

epidemiologic studies.

Development of best practice guidelines and application by

partners is a useful approach for collaborative projects on vaccine

safety.

The collaboration should be extended to all EU, EFTA and

candidate countries.Website: www.vacsatc.euContact: Moa Bejerstenmoa.bejersten@smi.se

Reference: Alvarez-Pasquín MJ, Heijbel H, Yarwood J, Van Damme P, VACSATC

partners. VACSATC (Vaccine safety: attitudes, training and

communication): Why such a project?. Euro Surveill. 2009;14(16):pii=19181