Vietnam Health Sector Urged to Keep High Immunization Rates

Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam on April 24 requested the country’s health sector to maintain high immunization rates at a meeting held in order to respond to the Immunization Week 2015 in the northern province of Bac Giang. Praising the health sector’s efforts and the support of international organizations in obtaining high immunization rates in Vietnam over the few past years, Dam said the country’s immunization hasn’t yet reached all children in the country. The deputy PM said that relevant ministries and sectors should work together with the health sector to provide sufficient number of safe vaccines to all people in the country, he said. UNICEF Representative Youssouf Abdel-Jelil said that about 51,000 Vietnamese children under the age of one had yet to be fully immunized in 2014. Despite the success of the recent measles and rubella campaign, which reached more than 19 million children between 1 and14 years old, the campaign failed to provide vaccines for 518,000, Mr.  Abdel-Jelil noted. The UNICEF representative suggested that Vietnam should integrate immunization with other health services to reduce missed opportunities and to provide health education on the importance of immunization. Immunization Week is an annual campaign to increase the number of vaccinated people as well as raise public awareness about the importance of vaccinations for both children and adults. Health sector statistics report that Vietnam maintained a 97% rate of routine immunization of children throughout 2014. The Expanded Program on Immunization has saved an estimated 42,000 lives and prevented more than 6.7 million cases of serious childhood diseases in Vietnam over the past 27 years. The WHO and the UNICEF estimated that across the world, around 1.5 million children die each year from diseases that vaccines could easily prevent. (Vietnam News Apr 25)