Nearly 448,000 children aging from 6-36 months will receive vitamin A in a large dose from November 30 to December 3, according to the Hanoi Centre for Disease Control.
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 Ministry of Health has issued a decision approving a plan to give additional measles-rubella (MR) vaccine shots to children in the 1-5 age group in the 2018-2019 period.
Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien has asked hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City to detect, classify and isolate patients with measles, dengue fever or hand-foot-mouth (HFM) disease to avoid cross-contamination.
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.
Vietnam has participated proactively and made significant contributions to the Mekong-Japan cooperation mechanism, which was set up ten years ago by Japan and five Mekong nations of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Japan highly values Vietnam’s important roles in the Mekong-Japan cooperation mechanism, according to Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan Nguyen Quoc Cuong.
The HCM City Department of Education and Training has instructed managers of schools to take preventive measures against the spread of contagious disease among students.
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.
Hanoi has continued to apply measures to prevent and control the spread of common diseases, especially dengue fever which is currently in its peak season.
Hanoi has reported 955 cases of dengue fever in 261 communes, wards and towns across its 30 districts from the outset of the year, a year-on-year decrease of 96.8 percent.
The Ministry of Health plans to use at least seven types of domestically produced vaccines as part of the expanded national immunisation programme by 2020.
Citizens of Hoang Van Thu commune of Hanoi’s outlying district of Chuong My were provided with free health check-ups and medicine on August 16, as the area had been submerged by floodwater for three weeks.
An unexpected spike in the number of children catching measles in Hanoi this summer has left doctors worrying about a potential outbreak, given that 90 percent of the infected children reportedly had yet to receive a vaccination.
Students face several diseases at the beginning of the new school year, such as dengue fever, hand-foot-mouth disease, measles and flu, so epidemic prevention efforts should be strengthened, health experts warned.
Hospitals and clinics in Vietnam have started implementing surveillance of nosocomial infections and monitoring the hospital-infection control process, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Viet Tien said at a recent meeting.
As many as 271 cases of measles have been reported in Hanoi since the beginning of this year, compared to just 60 for all of last year.
