The meeting saw the presence of Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long and WHO Chief Representative Takeshi Kasai.
This year’s immunisation week, running from April 22-30, is themed “Toward the target of no measles”.
A range of activities are underway to eliminate measles in Vietnam,including increasing the proportion of 9- and 18-month old childrenreceiving two doses of vaccine against measles to 95 percent; ameasles–rubella immunisation campaign for 23 million children between9-14 months old by 2014; and immediate vaccinations for people at highrisk, especially those between 22 and 30 years old.
Addressing the ceremony, Deputy Minister Long urged localities andagencies work harder to bring the immunisation programme to remoteareas, as well as raise public awareness of the effect immunisation hason people’s quality of life.
According to Kasai,from 1993 to now, the percentage of immunised children under 1 year oldwas maintained at over 90 percent in Vietnam. The country has alsoachieved several important goals such as eliminating polio (in 2000) andneonatal tetanus (in 2005), making the achievement of the fourthmillennium goal to reduce the child mortality rate closer, he added.-VNA