This document summarises evidence from studies included in the licensing file of HPV vaccines together with postlicensure, peer-reviewed data and analysis where available. This guidance does not address the safety of HPV vaccines observed during the pre- and post-licensing period.
This expert opinion is intended to support national decision-making by summarising the considerations and concerns of some EU/EEA countries when they discussed whether to introduce the 4CMenB vaccine into their national immunisation programmes.
In May 2012 a collection of five strains of Haemophilus spp was sent to 28 participating reference laboratories in the IBD-labnet surveillance network for quality assurance testing. The laboratories were asked to characterise the five strains by performing standard laboratory protocols for the methods usually used by the laboratory for: species identification, biotyping and serotyping by serological methods and/or PCR.
The results of this EQA are published in the this report.
Current childhood vaccination schedules are the result of historical tradition, compliance with provision of health services and national vaccine registration. They have been designed on the basis of different needs related to how the healthcare system – but also the education system – is organised at national level.