The Department of Health (DoH) of the Philippines announced on September 19 that polio is re-emerging in the country, 19 years after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the Southeast Asian country free of the infectious disease.
The Philippines’ Department of Health (DOH) has declared the country’s outbreak of dengue to be a national epidemic in the wake of 146,062 cases recorded from January to July 20 this year.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo on August 5 chaired a plenary cabinet meeting to discuss the draft 2020 state budget and its financial notes, during which he affirmed that the budget will prioritise the promotion of human resources through education, healthcare and training.
The healthcare sector is adapting to new medical trends to meet higher public expectations for healthcare quality, the head of the Ministry of Health's Preventive Medicine Department Tran Dac Phu said.
Immunisation is one of the most important measures to protect the community from life-threatening and popular contagious diseases, said Deputy Minister of Health Truong Quoc Cuong.
The number of people hospitalised in Ho Chi Minh City with contagious diseases this year has sharply increased compared with the same period a year ago, according to the city’s Preventive Medicine Centre.
Nearly 90 percent of measles cases reported in Vietnam can be traced to people who were either not vaccinated against the highly contagious virus, received no full vaccinations or had unknown vaccination status.
Measles has been reported in 43 out of 64 provinces and cities nationwide with 664 patients since early this month, particularly in the south, according to the Ministry of Health.
Thirty-two cases of measles were recorded in Hanoi in the first three weeks of 2019, mostly children who are under five years old and have not been fully vaccinated.
Parents have delayed taking their nine-month-old children to healthcare facilities for measles vaccinations because of insufficient counselling from hospitals and doctors at vaccination centres.
The health sector aims to have over 95 percent of under-one-year-old children nationwide fully vaccinated in the expanded national immunization programme by 2020, heard a conference in Hanoi on January 7.
ComBE Five vaccine will be used nationwide to replace Quinvaxem from late December after it was tested in seven provinces, the Ministry of Health announced on December 18.
Health centres in Ho Chi Minh City are working to verify how many children aged one to five have not been immunised against measles for a national campaign to provide free two-in-one vaccines against measles and rubella starting this month.
Health experts have urged parents to have their babies fully vaccinated in order to create a barrier of immunisation for the whole community as several infectious diseases are raging across the country.
The Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group (Viettel) on October 15 officially announced the establishment of the Viettel Business Solutions Corporation, marking a move into its so-called fourth development stage.
The Ministry of Health has called on authorities and hospitals in the south to strengthen preventive measures to control the spread of measles and hand-foot-mouth disease.
Hospitals in the southern region have admitted many patients diagnosed with hand-foot-mouth disease, measles or upper respiratory infections as the peak season for contagious diseases has arrived.
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