Uppsala Reports Long Reads – Vaccination errors risk harm and damage trust

Send a text message to the show!Medication errors with vaccines can harm individual patients, but when they also undermine trust in public health programmes, serious problems can ripple across entire communities – as the Samoan healthcare crisis of 2018 dramatically showed. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices offers straightforward advice that could prevent those errors from happening again.This episode is part of the Uppsala Reports Long Reads series – the most topical stories from UMC’s pharmacovigilance magazine, brought to you in audio format. Find the original article here.Tune in to find out:Which errors can occur in the vaccination processWhy two-component vaccines are especially susceptible to administration errorsHow vaccine packaging and labelling can be improved to prevent errorsWant to know more?The Institute for Safe Medication Practices has repeatedly warned about the risks with two-component vaccines. In 2015, they issued a position statement calling for safer design of vaccine packaging and labelling.Tragic errors can occur when dangerous substances are accidentally used instead of the vaccine diluent, like the incident that occurred in Syria in 2014.The measles outbreak that took root in Samoa as a consequence of vaccine hesitancy – which in turn stemmed from an earlier, tragic vaccination error – holds important lessons for the rest of the world.Got a story to share?We’re always looking for new topics and interesting voices. If you have an idea or any other feedback for the show, get in touch!About UMCUppsala Monitoring Centre promotes safer use of medicines and vaccines for everyone everywhere. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, and Bluesky.