Illustrative image (Source: VNA)Lam Dong (VNA) - Ninety-five percent of Vietnamese infants have completed fullvaccination programmes during the 2016-2020 period, under an expanded nationalvaccination programme, according to Director of the National Institute ofHygiene and Epidemiology Dang Duc Anh.
At a conference held in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong on November3, Anh said the percentage of fully-immunised infants has been maintained atabove 90 percent since 2000.
Immunisation work this year has been affected by COVID-19, he said, adding thatsome 100,000 children missed out on life-saving DPT-VGB-HiB shots againstdiphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, Hepatitis B, and Haemophilus influenza B (HIB).
According to a report from the institute, Vietnam successfully eradicated polioin 2000 and has worked to protect this achievement. It has good control over measlesand is moving towards eliminating the disease shortly. National measles inoculationstands at over 95 percent.
Several new vaccines were put into use during the period, including the inactivatedpolio vaccine (IPV), with over 2 million five-month-old children getting thefirst shots nationwide. In addition, children aged seven years have received a Tdshot against tetanus and diphtheria since 2019. This year, the combined diphtheriaand tetanus vaccine reached 35 cities and provinces nationwide.
The healthcare sector targets sustaining such achievements during 2021-2025 andis working to eradicate other diseases with vaccines while trying to improve thequality of the vaccination system./.
VNA
