Developing COVID-19 vaccine recommendations during the pandemic: The experience of Serbia's Expert Committee on Immunization

Markovic-Denic, L (通讯作者),Univ Belgrade, Fac Med, Belgrade, Serbia.
2022-11-17
A National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) is a multi-disciplinary body of national experts that provide evidence-based recommendations to policy-makers to assist them in making informed immunization policy and programme decisions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, NITAGs faced many challenges in making evidence-based recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines due to the rapidly evolving situation with new vaccine products available in a short time period and limited data on vaccine effectiveness. The authors reviewed the process used by Serbia's NITAG, which is called the Serbian Expert Committee on Immunization, to develop COVID-19 vaccine recommendations during the pandemic. The article examines the challenges and successes faced by the committee. Serbia's expert committee used the best available evidence to develop over forty recommendations on all aspects of COVID-19 vaccination. These expert committee recommendations facilitated the early procurement and successful roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines, guidance for vaccination of individuals at the highest risk, and high COVID-19 vaccination coverage in the country. The availability of five COVID-19 vaccines in Serbia was an advantage for the successful roll-out but posed challenges for the expert committee. Serbia's expert committee plans to use the experience and best practices developed during the pandemic to improve and expand its work moving forward.
FRONTIERS IN PUBLIC HEALTH
卷号:10
收录类别:SCIE
语种
英语
来源机构
University of Belgrade; Clinical Centre of Serbia; World Health Organization; University of Belgrade
资助信息
Funding for data analysis was provided by the Serbian Ministry of Health and the National Institute of Public Health of Serbia.
被引频次(WOS)
0
被引频次(其他)
0
180天使用计数
2
2013以来使用计数
2
EISSN
2296-2565
出版年
2022-11-17
DOI
10.3389/fpubh.2022.1056670
WOS学科分类
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
学科领域
循证公共卫生
关键词
National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) COVID-19 pandemic COVID-19 vaccination Serbia evidence-based recommendations immunization
资助机构
Serbian Ministry of Health National Institute of Public Health of Serbia