Use of vaccine surveillance data in the evaluation of safety of vaccines.

In this article we discuss some of the most widely used methods of the routine vaccine safety surveillance. The main problems inherently associated with these passive techniques are also addressed. The vaccine safety surveillance in Finland is used as an example. Finally, we are giving a brief introduction to more advanced surveillance tools, namely record linkage and electronic vaccine registers, which are now being investigated in Finland as a part of the European Research Programme for Improved Vaccine Safety Surveillance (EUSAFEVAC)-project.