Vaccine safety in special populations

Studies evaluating the safety of vaccines routinely administered to a population of healthy infants and children may not provide adequate reassurance for members of special populations such as premature infants and children with chronic conditions. However, evaluating the safety of vaccines administered to special populations presents a host of challenges, including limited numbers of subjects, lack of appropriate comparisons groups and substantial complexity in both collecting and evaluating the data. Improving the available immunization safety data for those in special populations will provide substantial benefit to the clinicians caring for these vulnerable patients.

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