Enhancing Vaccine Safety: The Role of Pharmacovigilance in Public Health

Vaccine safety is a cornerstone of public health, ensuring that vaccines not only provide protection against infectious diseases but also do so without causing harm. Pharmacovigilance, the science and activities related to the detection, assessment, understanding, and prevention of adverse effects or any other drug-related problems, plays a critical role in monitoring vaccine safety. This abstract explores the importance of pharmacovigilance in enhancing vaccine safety, focusing on its methods, challenges, and impact on public health strategies. Post-marketing surveillance, adverse event reporting systems, and risk management frameworks are integral components of pharmacovigilance that help identify rare or longterm side effects that may not be detected in clinical trials. Through the collection and analysis of real-world data, pharmacovigilance informs regulatory decisions, improves vaccine formulations, and strengthens public trust in immunization programs. However, challenges such as underreporting of adverse events, variability in data quality, and the complexity of causality assessment remain. Effective pharmacovigilance systems, supported by robust data collection mechanisms and international collaboration, are essential for ensuring vaccine safety, fostering public confidence, and advancing global immunization efforts. The ongoing evolution of pharmacovigilance systems, alongside innovations in data analytics and AI, promises to further enhance the safety profiles of vaccines, thereby improving their role in global public health initiatives