Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has demanded that agencies concernedmust ensure enough workforce, medicines and equipment to eliminate theoutbreaks of measles as soon as possible.
At a working sessionwith relevant ministries, agencies and Hanoi authorities on April 23,the PM asked the Ministry of Public Health to expand communicationscampaigns to raise public awareness of the disease and all necessaryprecautions, especially vaccination. He noted that while new cases havereduced, the number of infected patients is still large. What is evenmore worrying is that the measles vaccination rate remains under 50percent in 11 provinces.
According to the Health Minister’sreport at the session, a total of 3,569 measles cases were recorded asof April 23 in 61 out of 63 cities and provinces, with 37 percent of thecases in Hanoi.
Children under 10 accounted for 68.3 percentof measles patients, the report said, adding that a majority of patients(86.4 percent) were not vaccinated against the disease, while 9.9percent of the patients had acquired just one shot of vaccine while atleast two doses are required.
The disease has claimed 25 lives so far, but the number of fatalities from measles complications has amounted to 108.
Vietnam is in the stage of curbing measles and expects to eliminate the disease by 2017.-VNA
At a working sessionwith relevant ministries, agencies and Hanoi authorities on April 23,the PM asked the Ministry of Public Health to expand communicationscampaigns to raise public awareness of the disease and all necessaryprecautions, especially vaccination. He noted that while new cases havereduced, the number of infected patients is still large. What is evenmore worrying is that the measles vaccination rate remains under 50percent in 11 provinces.
According to the Health Minister’sreport at the session, a total of 3,569 measles cases were recorded asof April 23 in 61 out of 63 cities and provinces, with 37 percent of thecases in Hanoi.
Children under 10 accounted for 68.3 percentof measles patients, the report said, adding that a majority of patients(86.4 percent) were not vaccinated against the disease, while 9.9percent of the patients had acquired just one shot of vaccine while atleast two doses are required.
The disease has claimed 25 lives so far, but the number of fatalities from measles complications has amounted to 108.
Vietnam is in the stage of curbing measles and expects to eliminate the disease by 2017.-VNA
