The Ministry of Health yesterday sent a document to provincial and city people's committees and relevant units urgently implementing the Prime Minister's Directive No. 23/CD-TT, focusing on enhanced measles prevention.
The Ministry of Health proposed administrations in provinces and cities to continue directing local functional units to effectively implement expanded immunization campaign, organize supplementary injections for children from 1 to 5 years old who have not been fully vaccinated with measles-containing vaccines to rapidly raise population level immunity and reduce the number of susceptible people in order to achieve disease control.
The supplementary immunization campaigns must be completed before March 31 as per the Ministry’s proposal.
The Ministry has called on local authorities, relevant departments, and agencies to coordinate and support the health sector in the urgent and synchronized deployment of epidemic prevention solutions. This includes strengthening the screening and management of vaccination individuals to ensure close adherence to the actual situation in each area, leaving no one behind - especially in regions with high-risk and low-vaccination rates.
Departments of Health in provinces and cities were asked to closely monitors the development of the epidemic situation in the area, urgently review and ensure sufficient human resources to support localities, especially those where measles is increasing, to effectively implement regular vaccination.
Moreover, departments of health in localities should accelerate the vaccination campaign for children from 6 months to 10 years old in the area, giving priority to districts with many cases or suspected cases of measles while flexibly applying appropriate vaccination methods according to the present regulations.
Since the start of 2025, the country has recorded nearly 42,500 suspected measles cases, including 4,027 confirmed cases across 62 provinces and cities. Tragically, five measles-related deaths were reported in Ho Chi Minh City with two cases, the southern provinces of Dong Nai, Binh Duong and Binh Phuoc each one case.
The Southern region has been hit hardest, accounting for 55 percent of suspected cases. The majority ( about 72.7 percent) of measles patients were children aged 9 months to 15 years, and 95 percent were either unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status.
