15/9 starts free measles-rubella vaccination for children

This campaign will be deployed first in 4 districts of 4 regions across the country, then applied to about 23 million children nationwide to prevent measles and rubella.

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According to Mr. Nguyen Tran Hien, Director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, this is a campaign with a very large number of children vaccinated and the vaccine is newly deployed in the Expanded Immunization Program. Therefore, it needs to be deployed on a small scale initially to gain experience.

After these four districts, the campaign will be deployed nationwide with more than 20 million children aged 1-14 in 2014-2015 to eliminate measles, control rubella and congenital rubella syndrome. The vaccine used this time is supported by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization.

The campaign's goal is to achieve a rate of over 95% of children aged 1-14 years old being vaccinated with this combination vaccine, especially striving for maximum coverage, not missing children who have not been vaccinated against measles in regular vaccination such as children who do not go to school, children in remote and isolated areas, migrant areas, etc. Vaccination points will be organized at schools or commune/ward health stations.

Accordingly, the first vaccination campaign will be implemented in September and October for children aged 1-5; the second campaign in November and February for children aged 6-10 in primary school; and the third campaign in January and February 2015 for children aged 11-14 in secondary school.

With a budget of over 36 million USD, it is expected that about 23 million children in 63 provinces and cities will be vaccinated. Each child will receive 1 dose of measles-rubella vaccine.

There is no specific treatment for measles and rubella. Vaccination against measles and rubella is the best way to proactively prevent the disease.

According to the Ministry of Health, measles and rubella are acute infectious diseases caused by viruses. Rubella in children is usually mild, with few complications. However, the consequences for pregnant women are extremely serious.

If the mother is infected with rubella in the first 3 months of pregnancy, it can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, congenital rubella syndrome and rubella infection in the newborn. Congenital rubella syndrome includes heart defects, cataracts, congenital deafness, developmental delay, neonatal diabetes, jaundice, hemorrhage, brittle bones... many children have multiple malformations.

According to VnExpress