The training aimed at providing technical assistance and training support for stakeholders in vaccine safety reporting and causality assessments in general, with a focus on safety reporting in vaccines that are administered to pregnant women, including COVID-19 vaccines.

The training activities which were part of the VacSafe project led by Prof. Beate Kampmann and Dr Uduak Okomo involved senior officials from Expanded Program for Immunization (EPI), The Gambia; Gambian Medicines Control Agency, MRCG at LSHTM staff and The Gambia National Expert Committee for Causality Assessment. 

The trainers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; World Health Organisation, Task Force of Global Heath and the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) reiterated the importance of collaboration between EPI, national regulatory authorities and research centres in strengthening causality assessment and improve the quality of data on rare Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) in the country. This will enable all stakeholders to have confidence in the safe use of licensed vaccines and enhances reporting competencies at all levels, including via front-line healthcare workers