Monitoring of vaccine safety occurs through a combination of passive and active surveillance systems.
Passive vaccine safety surveillance is the spontaneous reporting of adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) by individuals, including the patient, GPs, specialist doctors, immunisation providers or the vaccine manufacturer. The is done through the Western Australian Vaccine Safety Surveillance (WAVSS) system.
Active vaccine safety surveillance entails contacting vaccine recipients within the week after vaccination via SMS or email with a brief survey to collect data on any symptoms they may have experienced following the immunisation. WA participates in a national active adverse events surveillance system called AusVaxSafety (external site).
Western Australia Vaccine Safety Advisory Committee (WAVSAC) provides independent expert advice to the Department of Health on the surveillance of AEFI and responding to potential safety signals. Members of WAVSAC include clinical immunologists, adult and paediatric subspecialists, and invited experts in fields relevant to vaccine safety surveillance.
Western Australia Vaccine Safety Expert Clinical Review Group (ECRG) is a group of clinical experts that assesses referred reports of severe adverse events following immunisation, examines relevant clinical information and reports these data to WAVSAC and, where relevant, the TGA.