El papel del Comité Panamericano de Vacunación Segura (COPAVASE) en el fortalecimiento de la vacunación segura en las Américas

The Manual for Surveillance of Events Supposedly Attributable to Vaccination or Immunization in the Region of the Americas represented one of the first steps toward building the regional system for surveillance of events supposedly attributable to vaccination or immunization (ESAVIs) and adverse events of special interest (AESIs). This manual establishes that, after notification and investigation of an event, a national committee of experts should classify the event in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO) causality classification. The Pan American Committee for Safe Vaccination (COPAVASE) was created in response to the introduction of the new COVID-19 vaccines to support causality analysis of complex regional ESAVI cases and to advise the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) on strategies for developing safety information and implementing risk mitigation measures. As part of this work, two strategic planning exercises were carried out, one with Committee members and PAHO staff and another that included national authorities and committee members, who contributed ideas on how to strengthen the work both at the regional level and in countries’ surveillance systems. Suggested areas of work included definition of clear guidelines, development of model terms of reference and case presentation guidelines, training, and strategies to ensure committee sustainability. With the strategies identified, PAHO expects to be able to continue strengthening national safe vaccination committees as key institutions for maintaining public trust.