Hoa Binh province has been allocated with sufficient vaccines for the local expanded vaccination programme after the supply of the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) and 5-in-1 one was disrupted from November 2023 to the beginning of this year.
Injection of the Bacille Calmette-Guerin, a vaccine for tuberculosis
disease, for newborns at the Hoa Binh General Hospital.
The Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) has
been carried out in Vietnam since 1981, providing free shots for kids to
protect them against many preventable diseases such as tuberculosis (TB),
Hepatitis B Virus, diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus.
According to Deputy Director of the provincial
Department of Health Nguyen An Truong, under the Law on State Budget,
localities must purchase vaccines with their own budget; however they found
difficulties in capital arrangement and approval, bidding procedures and price
approval, leading to the scarcity of vaccines across the nation.
Earlier this year, the Central Institute of
Hygiene and Epidemiology placed orders for 10 types of vaccines used in the EPI
from domestic manufacturers for allocation to localities. After the vaccines
were transported to Hoa Binh on April 24, the local Centre for Disease Control
(CDC) issued decisions to distribute them to medical stations for immunisation
in May.
The province got a total of 710 doses of Hepatitis
B vaccine, 1,310 of Bacille Camette-Guerin, 3,660 of Oral polio vaccine, 4,624
of 5-in-1 DPT-VGB-Hib vaccine against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus
hepatitis B and haemophilus influenza type b (Hib), 3,090 of inactivated polio
vaccine (IPV), 1,940 of measles-rubella vaccine, 2,040 of measles, 1885 of
Japanese encephalitis vaccine, 3,140 of diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine,
and 2,900 of tetanus vaccine.
Adults, the elderly and pregnant, and people
with underlying medical conditions and weakened immune systems have been also
advised to get immunised as vaccination provides protection not only against
the disease itself but also against the dangerous complications or consequences
that it can bring.
