The Ministry of Health has uncovered many violations in the technical vaccination process, vaccine preservation and safety regulations after a recent inoculation inspection in 30 provinces and cities across Vietnam. The infractions included no consulting rooms in vaccination areas in some localities, keeping vaccines in drugstores; unequal skills of consulting staffs at these sites. In recent instructions by the ministry, a vaccination site should not receive over 50 children, exceeding the rule of 30, in a regular vaccination shift to ensure reasonable consulting times for parents and to ensure vaccination safety. Meanwhile, Hanoi Preventive Medicine Center Director Nguyen Nhat Cam said a vaccination site in the city often receives 138 children daily on average. Thus, workers just gave quick questions and answer while most children left right after vaccinations as clinics did not have enough beds to supervise children post vaccination. Inspection results from 100 out of total 577 vaccination sites in Hanoi showed that nearly 28% have unreasonable arrangement of vaccination areas, more than 37% have problems with injection skills and nearly 27% related to vaccine preservations. In Haiphong City, 17% of medical establishments did not meet the demands of minimum conditions of materials and facilities. Two medical units were suspended due to their expired license for trading vaccines and bio-products. The survey added the Health Department in the central province of Quang Tri where three newborn babies were reported to die due to post-vaccination reactions, reported that all vaccination units had met conditions on facilities, infrastructure and vaccination processes. However, National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology Director Nguyen Tran Hien said that many violations had been found in vaccination processes in the Huong Hoa General Hospital where three newborns died after vaccination in mid-July. The ministry had sent vaccine samples related to the above deaths to the National Institute for Verification of Vaccine and Biological Products for testing and to an independent laboratory in the U.K. with support of the World Health Organization. Many local residents are not keen on participating in the national immunization program as the country still records some deaths from anaphylactic shocks after vaccination. Moreover, no authorities in Vietnam have assumed responsibilities or apologized for such deaths. The Southeast Asian nation has reported more than 27 related deaths over the past four years. (Vietnam News Aug 2 p3)
