Are vaccines safe?

Vaccines are very safe. Your child is far more likely to be hurt by a vaccine-preventable disease than by a vaccine. All vaccines go through rigorous safety testing, including clinical trials, before they are approved for the public. Countries will only register and distribute vaccines that meet rigorous quality and safety standards.

Before a vaccine is authorized to be on the market, it goes through several tests to ensure it is safe. Once the vaccine is licensed, its use is monitored and information on its safety collected.

Vaccines save millions of lives every year because:

• They prevent people from contracting diseases that can kill or make one severely ill.
• They ensure outbreaks of these diseases don’t occur!

Wherever children are not immunized, their lives and their communities are at risk.

Vaccines interact with the immune system to produce an immune response but they do not cause the disease or put the immunized person at risk of its potential complications.

Most vaccine reactions are usually minor and temporary, such as a sore arm or mild fever. In the rare event a serious side effect is reported, it is immediately investigated.

All diseases targeted by vaccination are diseases that can kill. It is far more likely to be seriously injured by a vaccine-preventable disease than by a vaccine!

The benefits of vaccination greatly outweigh the risks, and many more illness and deaths would occur without vaccines.