HCM City is providing free vaccinations for infants against measles and rubella as part of a Ministry of Health campaign to prevent a repeat of the 2014 measles outbreak (Photo: VNA)HCM City (VNS/VNA) – Health centres
in Ho Chi Minh City are working to verify how many children aged one to five
have not been immunised against measles for a national campaign to provide free
starting this month.
The Ministry of Health is undertaking the
campaign to increase to prevent a repeat of the measles
outbreak in 2014.
HCM City’s Preventive Health Centre reported
that 400 people are suspected to have contracted measles so far this year.
The city has seen a rise in measles cases since
the end of September, and the centre warned it would continue if the number of
children without measles shots was not reduced.
The vaccination campaign will end next January,
Dr Nguyen Tri Dung, the centre’s head, told a recent meeting with health
centres in all 24 districts.
The Thu Duc District Health Centre worked with
the local education division to obtain a list of children aged between one and
five at kindergartens and nurseries.
It then asked managers and teachers of
kindergartens and nurseries which children are yet to get two doses of the
measles vaccine.
This process revealed that 4,803 children need
to get vaccinated. Centre officials wrote to these children’s families to say
they should take them to the nearest health centre for vaccination.
But Dung said this is not an effective method
since many families fail to carry out the task.
The centre should instead collaborate with
kindergartens and nurseries to provide vaccines there, he suggested.
The Tan Phu District Health Centre is
collaborating with the population division to visit each family to draw up a list
of unvaccinated children and tell their families about the campaign.
Dr Nguyen Huu Hung, Deputy Dead of the city’s Department
of Health, said it was important to identify which children in the community
had not been immunised.
In September and October, the city carried out a
free programme to vaccinate children born in 2016 and 2017, but Hung said it
did not reach enough children.
The Preventive Health Centre said recently that
several hospitals and other vaccine centres do not give children measles shots
at nine months, waiting instead until they are one year old to give them a
combined measles-rubella shot despite the Ministry of Health’s recommendation
that children should be immunised against at nine months.
The Department of Health has since instructed
all hospitals and immunisation centres to comply with the ministry’s
instructions.-VNS/VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
