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Medical experts warn of infectious disease outbreaks due to vaccine shortage in EPI |
The national expanded program on immunization which provides free-of-charge immunization to 10 vaccines has helped to prevent childhood diseases like polio, tetanus, measles, tuberculosis, hepatitis B, diphtheria, pertussis, pneumonia, and meningitis.
However, in the past time, due to policy changes and problems with bidding and procurement mechanisms, some vaccines have not been provided.
Recently, resident Nguyen Quoc Ngoc in Thu Duc City took his child to the Binh Chieu Ward Medical Station to receive a free five-in-one vaccine to prevent diphtheria - whooping cough - tetanus - hepatitis B virus and Hib meningitis in the national expanded program on immunization. However, he was informed that the medical station had run out of the free vaccine and advised to pay for vaccine "6 in 1" Infanrix hexa with more than VND1 million. While he and his wife are struggling to make ends meet with the meager salary, they couldn’t afford paid vaccine, so Mr. Ngoc had no choice but to bring his child home.
Doctor Nguyen Ngoc My, Head of the Binh Chieu Ward Health Station, informed that in the past 5 months, the station has had no more free 5-in-1 vaccines to inject children. From the end of April 2023, the PDT vaccine against diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus for children aged 18-24 months has also been exhausted.
Thus, medical staff in the health station has advised parents to pay for expensive vaccines so that their children will not miss immunization schedules.
For families which cannot afford it, their children get OPV (polio prevention) vaccine first to prevent it.
According to the national expanded program on immunization, the shortage of some vaccines began in mid-2022 and has lasted until now, leaving many young children not fully vaccinated according to the Ministry of Health’s guidelines. According to statistics in 2022, only 3/20 provinces and cities in the South have high vaccination coverage for children aged under one year. The general vaccination rate in the South region is only 79.5 percent due to the lack of vaccines in the national expanded program on immunization. The shortage of vaccines also occurs in many localities such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Quang Ninh, Ha Nam, Can Tho, and An Giang.
In the face of a shortage of many types of vaccines in the national expanded program on immunization that prevent children from being fully immunized, many health experts have warned of a risk of large-scale outbreaks of infectious diseases in the coming time.
Healthcare experts also fretted about the reemergence of a number of diseases that Vietnam has been successful in controlling such as polio, whooping cough, measles, rubella, and diphtheria seriously affecting the results of the country’s national expanded program on immunization that Vietnam has been struggling to achieve for more than 40 years.
Worse, the polio elimination committee of the WHO Western Pacific Region reclassified Vietnam from the group of low-risk countries to the group of high-risk countries for wild poliovirus importation or the occurrence of polio cases caused by mutated strains.
