(Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said on Thursday it is reinstating a federal task force for safer childhood vaccines after 27 years.
The original task force was created by Congress under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 to improve the safety, quality and oversight of vaccines administered to American children. It was disbanded in 1998 and has been inactive ever since.
HHS said the task force will be led by Jay Bhattacharya, the National Institutes of Health director, and represented by senior leaders of the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The task force will work closely with the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines to produce recommendations focused on development of “childhood vaccines that result in fewer and less serious adverse reactions than those vaccines currently on the market.”
The health agency said it will transmit its first formal report to Congress within two years, with updates every two years thereafter.
(Reporting by Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
