Serious shortage of expanded immunization vaccines, what does the Ministry of Health say?

Children get vaccinated at Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City

That was the information confirmed by Ms. Duong Thi Hong - Deputy Director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (Ministry of Health), Head of the National Expanded Immunization Office - at the 2022 expanded immunization review conference in the Southern region on the morning of May 23 in Ho Chi Minh City.

Ministry of Health wants to provide centralized vaccines

Sharing the concerns of many localities when all 5-in-1 vaccines have been sold out since February, and DPT vaccines have also started to run out, Ms. Duong Thi Hong said:

"Next June, the Ministry of Health will have a document requesting the order quantity.vaccineand the time the locality receives the vaccine. When the locality signs a contract with the manufacturer, receives the vaccine, tries to deploy vaccination, avoiding the situation of excess or shortage of the proposed vaccine".

Ms. Hong added that the Ministry of Health has submitted a report to the Government and will have a report in the upcoming National Assembly session, wishing to continue to provide centralized vaccines.

The Ministry of Health will also develop a price framework for imported 5-in-1 vaccines.

When there are results of procurement, bidding or price negotiation according to current regulations, there will be an official price, on the basis of which localities will sign contracts to receive vaccines.

At the conference, the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology also hoped that expanded immunization work would need more investment.

The goal is to meet the growing demand for child health protection, ensure commitments to international organizations, and improve the quality of vaccination services.

There needs to be a priority policy for regular vaccination, supplementary vaccination and sweep vaccination, and effective use of vaccine resources from the first month of 2023.

2 month old baby takes Rota vaccine to prevent diarrhea

Vaccination rates are very low, risk of disease returning

Previously, Ms. Hoang Ngoc Mai - representative of the national expanded immunization program - said that the expanded immunization rate in 2022 did not meet the annual plan target and was lower than in 2021.

The Southern region has 90 districts of 15 provinces and cities with low vaccination rates, below 80%.

Regarding the results of vaccination in 2022, Ms. Mai said that in the Southern region, only 16/20 provinces carried out vaccination in 2021 with 338,026 injections and in 2022, 18 provinces carried out vaccination with 123,498 injections in the first quarter of 2023.

"This number is very low compared to the number of children needing to be vaccinated and does not significantly change the vaccination rate," Ms. Mai concluded.

According to Ms. Mai, the above situation poses a risk of large-scale infectious disease outbreaks. The World Health Organization (WHO) has ranked the risk of polio returning to Vietnam from the lowest level to medium-high.

According to Tuoi Tre