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Dundee Researchers Use Texts And E-mails To Monitor Side-effects Of The Flu Vaccine

SCOTS scientists have used texts and e-mails to collect details “in near real time” to monitor any side effects of vaccinations.

Researchers at Dundee University said yesterday that the rapid reporting of data, from thousands of people who received the 2009-10 swine flu vaccination in Scotland, could add another layer of safety to future vaccination campaigns.

The data, published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, showed “no significant safety issues” in patients exposed to the vaccine.

The majority of the 3,754 participants were e-mailed once a month, and a few contacted by text, letter and phone, for seven months and asked if they had experienced any serious medical problems which they believed were related to the vaccine.

While there are long-standing mechanisms for collecting data about side-effects once a vaccination or medicine starts to be used, the processes are often slow, and it can take months or years before the data is analysed and the results made known.

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Extract taken from Scotsman.com