The key takeaways of this chapter are:
- Vaccine safety is a highly regulated, scrutinous process in Canada.
- Vaccines undergo various stages of research before receiving license issuance by Health Canada.
- Vaccine evaluation is ongoing, even after licensure. Post-marketing surveillance is important to ensure vaccines continue to be safe and to detect rare or serious adverse events.
- Health professionals are required by law to report adverse events following immunization.
- Adverse events following immunization should be reported when the event is serious or unexpected, and there is no other clear cause for the event. A causal relationship is not required to report the adverse event.