In June 2023, a subregional training seminar on “Quality and data management in vaccine safety monitoring systems” was organized at the initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Frankfurt, Germany. Khalisa Akbarova, an expert of the Pharmacovigilance Department of the Analytical Expertise Center of MOH, participated in the training.
The purpose of the training was to provide detailed information on vaccine safety and government immunization programs, as well as to create favorable conditions for increased cooperation between institutions involved in immunization.
The seminar was attended by 35 specialists from 16 countries (Azerbaijan, Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Serbia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan). Among the participants were representatives of WHO, staff of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, experts from the WHO Uppsala Monitoring Center, staff of the European Medicines Agency and the US Center for Disease Control.
At the workshop, which was organized in two languages (Russian and English), and at a high level, the problematic issues of vaccine safety monitoring systems in the participating countries were discussed within the framework of round tables. The workshop included presentations on the topics “Strengthening Vaccine Safety Monitoring”, “Regulatory Framework for Vaccine Safety Monitoring. WHO Global Comparison Tool (GBI)”, “MedDRA Dictionary for Coding and Analysis of Safety Data”, “WHO Causal Evaluation”, “Informing the Public about Vaccine Safety Risks and Vaccine Benefits”, etc. Also, a practical lesson was held for the participants of the event on qualitative and quantitative analysis using the VigiLyze program.
On the last day of the seminar, the Paul Ehrlich Institute was visited and each country prepared an action plan and made presentations.
