The Ministry of Health on October 4 launched a campaign on additional immunisation against measles for children under five.
With assistance from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), the campaign aims to vaccinate 95 percent of the target population in all 63 cities and provinces nationwide, estimated at 7.5 million children, from now until year’s end.
Vietnam aims to eliminate measles by 2012 to meet the UN millennium goal for reduction of child mortality.
The National Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) project has reported a reduction in the measles morbidity rate by 368 times from 1984 to 2008.
However, a major measles epidemic broke out in late 2008, affecting children under six, although many of them had been vaccinated against the disease.
The incident showed that two shots for a child under the EPI are not strong enough to resist the disease, leading to the Health Ministry’s decision to add one more shot for children on a national scale.
The Rector of the Central Epidemiology Institute, Dr. Nguyen Tran Hien, warned that measles may cause blindness, encephalitis and pneumonia and is a major world child killer./.
With assistance from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), the campaign aims to vaccinate 95 percent of the target population in all 63 cities and provinces nationwide, estimated at 7.5 million children, from now until year’s end.
Vietnam aims to eliminate measles by 2012 to meet the UN millennium goal for reduction of child mortality.
The National Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) project has reported a reduction in the measles morbidity rate by 368 times from 1984 to 2008.
However, a major measles epidemic broke out in late 2008, affecting children under six, although many of them had been vaccinated against the disease.
The incident showed that two shots for a child under the EPI are not strong enough to resist the disease, leading to the Health Ministry’s decision to add one more shot for children on a national scale.
The Rector of the Central Epidemiology Institute, Dr. Nguyen Tran Hien, warned that measles may cause blindness, encephalitis and pneumonia and is a major world child killer./.
