In order to respond promptly, efficiently and with scientific rigour to vaccine safety issues of potential global importance, the WHO established a Global Vaccine Safety Advisory Committee (GACVS) with the first meeting in Geneva on September 14-15, 1999 where it established its constitution, goals and functioning. GACVS’s Terms of Reference. [1, 2, 3, 4]
GACVS report their finding in the WHO’s Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER)
Historical minutes for 1999-2013 looking at various vaccine issues such as thiomersal, aluminium adjuvants, pregnacy, lactation, adverse events such as Guillain-Barré syndrome and Bell palsy, an assortment of vaccines for diseases etc.
The same year, 1999, the WHO Director General established the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization, to provide guidance on the work of WHO. [5]