Tran Dac Phu, head of the Department of Preventive Medicine, examines a patient with measles at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in HCM City. (Photo: VNA)HCM City (VNS/VNA) – Parents have delayed taking their
nine-month-old children to for
because of from hospitals and doctors at vaccination
centres.
The delay has led to
more reported cases of measles and an increased risk of an outbreak, according
to the Preventive Medicine Centre in Ho Chi Minh City.
The first vaccine shot
against measles is supposed to take place at nine months old and the second
shot at 18 months old under the national immunisation guidelines of the
Ministry of Health.
Le Hong Nga of the
Preventive Medicine Centre said that many hospitals and vaccination centres
were also providing two-in-one vaccines that immunise against both measles and
rubella. The first vaccine is scheduled at 12 months old and the second shot
three to five years later, under the manufacturers’ guidelines.
Dr Nguyen Thi Hong Bien,
deputy head of the District 8 Health Centre, however, said that “many parents
don’t trust what we say about the two-in-one vaccine”.
“They are told they must
get the second shot three or five years later after the shot at 12 months old
by doctors at hospitals and vaccination centres. But they don’t accept this and
will not take their children to health stations in wards and communes for a
vaccine.”
The Preventive
Medicine Centre is providing the two-in-one vaccine to children born from 2014
to 2017, following the Ministry of Health’s national campaign on vaccination,
which started in early January.
Staff at health centres
and stations in districts, wards and communes are finding it difficult to
persuade parents to get this two-in-one vaccine.
“Ninety-five percent of
measles patients have not been vaccinated,” Nga said.
The city reported 1,989
cases of measles since early 2018, with the number of patients increasing in
September. Nearly 300 to 400 patients have been hospitalised each week since
September.
Of the 1,989 patients,
many of them were children. Nearly 60 percent were under five years old.
“Children aged six to 10
months had measles” because immunisation from the mother was low, Nga said.
She warned that women
should get vaccinated against measles three months before becoming pregnant.
The Hospital for
Tropical Diseases has one of the highest numbers of patients with measles in
the city.
Since the beginning of
this year, at least 27 percent of 645 in-patients with measles have suffered
complications and had to use mechanical ventilators.
Paediatrics Hospital No
1 is treating 30 children with measles who are in serious condition.
Tran Dac Phu, Director of
the Department of Preventive Medicine, said that measles could spread
until June if immunisation coverage was not increased.
Local authorities should
work with health staff to compile a list of children who are at the age to get
vaccinated and encourage their parents to take them to local health stations or
get the vaccine at their kindergartens, Phu said.
Dr Nguyen Tri Dung, head
of the HCM City , said the city would continue the
campaign to raise immunisation coverage to more than 95 percent.
In February, the centre
will try to identify children who have not been vaccinated and persuade their parents
to accept vaccination, Dung said.
The centre also plans to
give the vaccine to children under five years old who are being treated for
other diseases at three paediatrics hospitals and the Hospital for Tropical
Diseases, he added. The pilot programme will be expanded to other hospitals
with paediatrics departments in the city.
Although only 5 percent
of children have not received vaccines in the city, the risk of transmission
exists.
Dr Phan Trong Lan, Director
of the HCM City Pasteur Institute, said the risk of spread from HCM City to
other provinces during the Tet holiday is high because many
people in the city will return to their hometowns.
Phu asked hospitals to
carry out preventive methods to reduce transmission to other patients.-VNS/VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
