Vietnamplus

The Philippines on September 20 began a campaign to vaccinate millions of children against polio after the disease made a return to the country after nearly two decades.

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.

Ho Chi Minh City recorded 3,316 scarlet fever cases suspected of infecting measles in the first three months of 2019, 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.

Ho Chi Minh City has begun allocating funds to 24 health stations for upgrading their infrastructure, as part of efforts to strengthen primary health care in the model of family medicine.

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.

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.

The southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau has recently launched a campaign to give the measles–rubella vaccination to juveniles aged 16-17 in the locality.

The central province of Ninh Thuan will implement a campaign to give the measles–rubella vaccination to about 22,000 juveniles aged 16-17.

Ho Chi Minh City from next month will implement a campaign to give the measles–rubella vaccination to about 124,000 people aged 16-17 from 24 districts in the city.

The national campaign on measles-rubella vaccination will be expanded to children aged 16-17 in a bid to prevent and stop the infectious diseases.

The nationwide measles-rubella vaccination campaign for eight months from September 2014 to May 2015 has provided free-of-charge immunisation shots to nearly 20 million children aged 1-14 years.

Six-in-one vaccines aren't available and the shortage should last until next year, Ministry of Health's Preventive Medicine Department Head Tran Dac Phu said on August 4.

The nationwide measles-rubella immunisation campaign for all children aged 1-14 has helped Vietnam prevent the diseases from spreading as few new cases of measles were reported in the first 7 months.