Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) Ho Chi Minh City (VNA) - Ho Chi Minh City needs more than 1.7 million doses of 12 types of vaccines for children under the expanded immunisation programme between now and June 2024, according to a report to the municipal People’s Committee sent by the Department of Health.
Particuarly, the city needs 121,700 doses and 126,240 doses of oral polio vaccine (OPV) in 2023 and in the first six months of 2024, respectively.
The city also needs 110,668 doses and 73,842 doses of vaccine DPT-VGB-HiB against five diseases including diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B, pneumonia/pyogenic meningitis caused by Hib bacteria for 2023 and the first six months of 2024, respectively.
From 2022, the shortage of vaccines in the expanded immunisation programme took place in Ho Chi Minh City as well as in other localities.
Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan said at a working session between Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha and leaders of some ministries, sectors and localities on the purchase of vaccines for children within the expanded immunisation programme last month that the ministry was assigned to buy and allocate vaccines to localities within the target programme for the medical-population programme for the 2016-2020 period.
After this programme ended in 2020, the ministry received budget from the central budget for the work to ensure vaccines for 2021 and 2022.
She said that the ministry hopes to be allowed to continue the vaccine purchase for the expanded immunisation programme as it is an effective scheme with significant importance in ensuring social welfare for women and children.
Meanwhile, Vice Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health Nguyen Anh Dung pointed to a number of legal obstacles in the work. He said that all vaccines in the expanded immunisation programme are on the list of drugs for national centralised bidding, so there is no mechanism for self-biding in localities.
Dung suggested that central agencies provide a budget to the Ministry of Health for bidding activities and allow it to allocate vaccines./.
