Immunisation is significant to public health.(Photo: VNA) Dak Lak (VNA) – Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long laid stress on the importance of immunisation for public health and calling parents to get their children fully and properly vaccinated at a meeting held in Buon Ma Thuot city, the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak on June 15.
The event was organised in response to the national immunisation week themed “Vaccination to protect the community”.
Localities should further efforts to ensure the vaccination rate reaching 95 percent in mountainous, remote and difficult districts, he said, adding that relevant authorities must ensure sufficient cost for the National Expanded Programme on Immunisation.
Hospitals must provide hepatitis B vaccine for newborns in their first 24 hours after birth while updating information to ensure that citizens are immunised sufficiently, he said.
At the meeting, Satoko Otsu, Representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to Vietnam, spoke highly of immunisation campaign in Vietnam as more than 95 percent of 1.7 million Vietnamese newborns receive free vaccination to prevent ten infectious diseases entitled to the expanded national vaccination programme.
The WHO committed to accompanying with Vietnam to reduce the child mortality rate and strive to have 100 percent of the population vaccinated, she noted.
The National Expanded Programme on Immunisation has been carried out in Vietnam since 1985, which help eliminate poliomyelitis in 2000 and neonatal tetanus in 2005. In addition, the National Immunisation Information System, which was launched in 2017, helps keep close watch and remind parents of their children’s immunisation schedules.-VNA
VNA
