50% of children with whooping cough have not been vaccinated

According to Professor Dang Duc Anh, Director of the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, in 2015, the country recorded over 380 cases of whooping cough, of which 50% of cases were unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated.

In previous years, whooping cough often appeared in the winter and spring of 2015, many children had to be hospitalized for whooping cough even in the summer months in severe condition, even with life-threatening complications of pneumonia. In addition, according to statistics, there were children under 2 months old, that is, not old enough to be vaccinated against whooping cough, who were infected. This is unusual because whooping cough is mainly common in school-age children and children over 6 months old.

The Infectious Diseases Department of the National Children's Hospital alone recorded nearly 300 cases, double that of 2014.

Dr. Nguyen Thien Hai, Deputy Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the National Children's Hospital, said that because mothers were not vaccinated against whooping cough when they were young, they did not have antibodies and could not pass them on to their children. Therefore, when children were born, before they were old enough to be vaccinated, they were infected with whooping cough.

On the other hand, some families with young children do not vaccinate or have the mentality of waiting for service vaccines and miss the golden time to vaccinate their children, so the rate of whooping cough also increases.

Dr. Hai also advised parents that after vaccination, reactions such as swelling, pain, redness at the injection site, and fever are completely normal. Parents must observe and monitor their children closely after vaccination. When children show symptoms such as persistent crying, loss of appetite, difficulty breathing, fever that does not go down with conventional fever reducers, or purple streaks, cold limbs, or paleness after vaccination, they should be taken to a medical facility immediately.

Information from the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology also shows that the rate of hepatitis B vaccination within 24 hours after birth in our country is still low, just over 55% in 2015. Previously, in 2014, it only reached 55.4%. According to Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dac Phu, Director of the Department of Preventive Medicine - Ministry of Health, building people's trust in the expanded immunization program is the biggest challenge in vaccination work today.

According to Laodong