To enhance vaccine safety through effective monitoring, the African Collaborating Centre for Pharmacovigilance (ACC) has introduced a new Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) Reporting Toolkit.
Designed for healthcare workers, the toolkit includes aid cards, posters, and other resources, serving as a primary training guide for reporting adverse reactions after vaccination.
The ACC, in collaboration with the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, officially launched the toolkit on Tuesday, March 11, at a public meeting on vaccine safety in Ghana, held at the National Vaccine Institute (NVI).
The ACC piloted the toolkit over a year in the Central and Eastern regions, recording a 65% satisfaction rate among healthcare workers, with 45% expressing complete satisfaction. Despite the positive reception, the FDA noted that underreporting and delays remain significant challenges in AEFI reporting.
George Sablah, Head of Safety Monitoring at the FDA, highlighted some of the Authority’s AEFI reporting channels, including dedicated phone lines, paper forms available in pharmacies, and a mobile app called “Med” for easy access.
“We have a patient reporting form in almost all pharmacies in Accra. For other regions, we are working to make the forms available. You can go to a pharmacy and request the toolkit form, and it will be given to you to fill out. If you can’t go to a pharmacy, there is a mobile app just go to the App Store or Play Store and download ‘Med’ for reporting,” Sablah explained.
Also speaking at the event, the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the National Vaccine Institute, Dr. Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey, reaffirmed his commitment to accelerating local vaccine production in Ghana. He emphasized the institute’s role in promoting research and development for new vaccine candidates while raising awareness of its mandate.
“What I can promise under my tenure is a renewed sense of urgency and focused action to enable us to achieve our core purpose of manufacturing vaccines locally, which is our primary mandate. While promoting R&D capacity for new candidate vaccines, I have realized that many people, even within the health sector, are unaware of the National Vaccine Institute’s existence. Clearly, we as an institute need to do more to engage the Ghanaian public as we execute our mandate,” he stated.
