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According to the city Department of Health, the DPT-VGB-HiB vaccine was supplied in October 2022 for the last time and from the beginning of March 2023, the southern largest city has been lacking the vaccine meanwhile the city was given the DPT vaccine in February 2023 and healthcare facilities are short of the vaccine from the beginning of this month.
The Department of Health of Ho Chi Minh City said that as of May 15, vaccination facilities in the city had completely run out of the 5-in-1 DPT-VGB-HiB vaccine against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B, Hib pneumonia and Hib meningitis and the DPT vaccine against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus in the Expanded Program on Immunization.
Other vaccines in the Expanded Program on Immunization are only available in very limited quantities and are expected to run out in the next few months if no more are provided.
Specifically, by the end of May 2023, the city will run out of hepatitis B and Japanese encephalitis vaccines. The stockpile of TB vaccine (BCG), polio vaccine (bOPV) and measles vaccine will be exhausted by mid-June-2023 and by July 2023 respectively while the stockpile of the tetanus vaccine (VAT) and the measles and rubella (MR) vaccine will be empty by August 2023 and by the end of September 2023.
Up to now, every month, the Department of Health has directed the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control (HCDC) to report on vaccine estimates in the Expanded Program on Immunization for the Southern Regional Expanded Program on Immunization under the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City. The Institute supplies vaccines to HCDC every 2 months.
The last time HCDC received vaccines BCG, bOPV, Japanese encephalitis, measles, tetanus and hepatitis B was on April 24, 2023.
According to the Department of Health of Ho Chi Minh City, the temporary interruption in the supply of some vaccines under the Expanded Program on Immunization is inevitable. The Department of Health has directed healthcare facilities in the city to maintain their regular activity on a fixed schedule to vaccinate available vaccines; and at the same time make a list of children who are scheduled to be vaccinated but delayed due to the disruption. These children will get vaccines as soon as the vaccines are re-supplied.
The Expanded Program on Immunization has been implemented in Vietnam since 1981, initiated by the Ministry of Health with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) with the initial goal to provide free vaccinations for children under 1 year of age to protect them from six common and highly fatal infectious diseases.
After a pilot period, the program has gradually been expanded in both areas and subjects of vaccination. From 1985 up to now, all children under 1 year old nationwide have had the opportunity to access the program.
By 2010, there were 11 vaccines against common and dangerous infectious diseases for children included in the program including vaccines against tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, hepatitis B, measles, Japanese encephalitis, cholera, typhoid, Hib pneumonia/meningitis.
