On 24 November 2009 the World Health Organization added VACFA to the list of Vaccine Safety Net websites, because of VACFA's adherence to the credibility and content criteria of good information practices. "This site represents an important addition to the network since it is just the second site to be included from the African region" says WHO.
Vaccines are one of the greatest achievements in medicine and public health. They prevent suffering, disability and more than two million deaths per year. Due to the success of immunization, however, some diseases are no longer perceived as a threat. Certain groups have even questioned the utility of vaccination, in spite of its ongoing necessity to control disease. In recent years, a number of websites providing unbalanced, misleading and alarming vaccine safety information have been established, making it more difficult to identify and access reliable sources of information on the web.
Acknowledging the above-mentioned issues and urged by governments, key non-governmental organizations and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), WHO initiated the Vaccine Safety Net Project in 2003 to "facilitate the access of public health authorities, health professionals and the public to reliable information on vaccine safety".