Short-Term Active Safety Surveillance of the Spikevax and Nuvaxovid Priming Doses in Australia.

Australia commenced administration of the Spikevax (Moderna mRNA-1273) COVID-19 vaccine in August 2021 and Nuvaxovid (Novavax NVX-CoV2373) in January 2022. This study describes the short-term safety profile of priming doses of the Spikevax and Nuvaxovid vaccines given between September 2021 and September 2023. Online surveys were sent via AusVaxSafety, Australia's active vaccine safety surveillance system, three and eight days after vaccination.

The short term safety of COVID-19 vaccines in Australia: AusVaxSafety active surveillance, February - August 2021.

Objective: To assess the short term safety of the COVID-19 vaccines Comirnaty (Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2) and Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca ChAdOx1) in Australia.

Design: Prospective observational cohort study; online surveys by AusVaxSafety, a national active vaccine safety surveillance system, three and eight days after vaccination.

Setting, Participants: People aged 16 years or more who received COVID-19 vaccines at sentinel vaccination hubs, general practices, or Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation clinics, 22 February - 30 August 2021.

Improved childhood immunization coverage using the World Health Organization's Tailoring Immunization Programmes guide (TIP) in a regional centre in Australia.

In 2017 the World Health Organization's Tailoring Immunization Programmes guide (TIP) was used to identify pockets of low immunization coverage in Australia. The regional centre of Maitland had high numbers and rates of children who were overdue for scheduled vaccinations (2016, n = 344, 37.7%).

Safety of live attenuated herpes zoster vaccine in Australian adults 70-79 years of age: an observational study using active surveillance.

Objectives: To assess the safety of live attenuated herpes zoster vaccine live (ZVL) through cumulative analysis of near real-time, participant-based active surveillance from Australia's AusVaxSafety system.

Design And Setting: ZVL was funded in Australia for adults aged 70 years from November 2016, with a time-limited catch up programme for those up to 79 years. This cohort study monitored safety in the first two programme years through active surveillance at 246 sentinel surveillance immunisation sites.

What gets measured gets noticed. Tracking surgical site infection post caesarean section through community surveillance: A post intervention study protocol.

Aim: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of HealthTracker, a surgical site infection surveillance system that aims to improve the notification of surgical site infection for women after giving birth by caesarean section.

Design: This protocol is an intervention study to evaluate the effectiveness of the surveillance system called "HealthTracker" in monitoring surgical site infections post caesarean section.

Methods: This study will use a mobile web application to automatically send a text message inviting all women who give birth to a live baby by caesarean section over six months during 2020-2021, at an Australian tertiary referral hospital.

Comparative Postmarket Safety Profile of Adjuvanted and High-Dose Influenza Vaccines in Individuals 65 Years or Older.

Importance: Every year, influenza vaccines are administered to millions of people worldwide to reduce morbidity and mortality from influenza. As new vaccine formulations are increasingly used, monitoring and comparing safety, in addition to vaccine effectiveness, in target populations are essential.

Objective: To assess the postmarketing safety profile of 2018 Southern Hemisphere influenza vaccines, particularly 2 new enhanced trivalent inactivated influenza vaccines: an adjuvanted trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (aIIV3) and high-dose trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (HD-IIV3), among Australian individuals 65 years or older.

Participant-Centered Online Active Surveillance for Adverse Events Following Vaccination in a Large Clinical Trial: Feasibility and Usability Study.

Background: Active participant monitoring of adverse events following immunization (AEFI) is a recent development to improve the speed and transparency of vaccine safety postmarketing. Vaxtracker, an online tool used to monitor vaccine safety, has successfully demonstrated its usefulness in postmarketing surveillance of newly introduced childhood vaccines. However, its use in older participants, or for monitoring patients participating in large clinical trials, has not been evaluated.

Improving child immunisation rates in a disadvantaged community in New South Wales, Australia: a process evaluation for research translation.

The World Health Organization's Tailoring Immunization Programmes approach was used to develop a new strategy to increase child vaccination coverage in a disadvantaged community in New South Wales, Australia, including reminders, outreach and home visiting. After 18 months, the strategy hasn't been fully implemented. A process evaluation was conducted to identify barriers and facilitators for research translation.

Active surveillance of 2017 seasonal influenza vaccine safety: an observational cohort study of individuals aged 6 months and older in Australia.

Objective: To actively solicit adverse events experienced in the days following immunisation with quadrivalent inactivated influenza vaccine using Australia's near real-time, participant-based vaccine safety surveillance system, AusVaxSafety.

Design And Setting: Observational cohort study conducted in 194 sentinel surveillance immunisation sites (primary care, hospital and community-based clinics) across Australia.

Participants: Individuals aged ≥6 months who received a routine seasonal influenza vaccine at a participating site (n=102 911) and responded to a survey (via short message service or email) sent 3 days after vaccination about adverse events experienced (n=73 892; 71.

Tailoring immunisation service delivery in a disadvantaged community in Australia; views of health providers and parents.

In 2014 the Australian immunisation target was raised from 90% to 95% of children to be fully immunised. A national priority is to identify geographic areas of low coverage and implement strategies to improve immunisation rates. Using The World Health Organization's Tailoring Immunization Programmes (TIP) Guidelines, the aim of this study was to identify areas of low immunisation coverage for children in the Hunter New England Local Health District, New South Wales, and to gain a deeper understanding of the factors influencing immunisation in those areas in order to develop tailored strategies for increasing immunisation coverage.

Active SMS-based influenza vaccine safety surveillance in Australian children.

Introduction: Australia's novel, active surveillance system, AusVaxSafety, monitors the post-market safety of vaccines in near real time. We analysed cumulative surveillance data for children aged 6 months to 4 years who received seasonal influenza vaccine in 2015 and/or 2016 to determine: adverse event following immunisation (AEFI) rates by vaccine brand, age and concomitant vaccine administration.

Methods: Parent/carer reports of AEFI occurring within 3 days of their child receiving an influenza vaccine in sentinel immunisation clinics were solicited by Short Message Service (SMS) and/or email-based survey.

Participant-centred active surveillance of adverse events following immunisation: a narrative review.

The importance of active, participant-centred monitoring of adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) is increasingly recognised as a valuable adjunct to traditional passive AEFI surveillance. The databases OVID Medline and OVID Embase were searched to identify all published articles referring to AEFI. Only studies which sought participant response after vaccination were included.

Opportunities to increase rates of human papillomavirus vaccination in the New South Wales school program through enhanced catch-up.

Unlabelled: Background The National Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination Program provides HPV vaccine to high school students through school-based vaccination. We aimed to: 1) assess the vaccine completion rates achieved when general practice is used for completing doses missed at school; 2) estimate the extent of under-notification by general practices of vaccine doses administered; and 3) assess the reasons reported by parents of students for non-completion of HPV vaccination.

Methods: A postal survey was conducted of parents and carers of students and identified, using school-program records, as incompletely vaccinated in a large regional area of northern NSW vaccinated during 2010.

Closing the gap in Australian Aboriginal infant immunisation rates -- the development and review of a pre-call strategy.

Background: Improving timely immunisation is key to closing the inequitable gap in immunisation rates between Aboriginal children and non-Indigenous children. Aboriginal Immunisation Officers were employed in Hunter New England Local Health District (HNELHD), New South Wales (NSW), Australia, to telephone the families of all Aboriginal infants prior to the due date for their first scheduled vaccination.

Methods: Aboriginal Immunisation Officers contacted the families of Aboriginal children born in the Hunter New England Local Health District (HNELHD) by telephone before their due immunisation date (pre-call) to provide the rationale for timely immunisation, and to facilitate contact with culturally safe local immunisation services if this was required.

Real-time safety surveillance of seasonal influenza vaccines in children, Australia, 2015.

Increased febrile reactions in Australian children from one influenza vaccine brand in 2010 diminished confidence in influenza immunisation, highlighting the need for improved vaccine safety surveillance. AusVaxSafety, a national vaccine safety surveillance system collected adverse events in young children for 2015 influenza vaccine brands in real time through parent/carer reports via SMS/email. Weekly cumulative data on 3,340 children demonstrated low rates of fever (4.

Vaxtracker: Active on-line surveillance for adverse events following inactivated influenza vaccine in children.

Vaxtracker is a web based survey for active post marketing surveillance of Adverse Events Following Immunisation. It is designed to efficiently monitor vaccine safety of new vaccines by early signal detection of serious adverse events. The Vaxtracker system automates contact with the parents or carers of immunised children by email and/or sms message to their smart phone.

Cross sectional survey of human-bat interaction in Australia: public health implications.

Background: Flying foxes (megachiroptera) and insectivorous microbats (microchiroptera) are the known reservoirs for a range of recently emerged, highly pathogenic viruses. In Australia there is public health concern relating to bats' role as reservoirs of Australian Bat Lyssavirus (ABLV), which has clinical features identical to classical rabies. Three deaths from ABLV have occurred in Australia.

Opportunistic childhood vaccinations in emergency--are we really missing anyone?

Objectives: Every health service presentation of a child should be considered an opportunity to ensure optimal immunisation. Measures to limit missed opportunities for vaccination in local emergency departments (ED) should reflect the scale of opportunity and parental support of immunisation service delivery strategies.

Methods: The vaccination status of every child aged less than seven years that presented to a tertiary hospital ED over a three month period was identified using the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register (ACIR).