The Ministry of Health is concerned about the risk of measles outbreaks re-emerging.

On the morning of February 5, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said that the Ministry of Health is currently very concerned about the possibility of a return of measles in Vietnam.

Monitoring reports from provinces and cities show that in January, 13 provinces and cities had suspected measles patients, of which 28 cases tested positive for measles and a number of small outbreaks occurred.

Treating children with measles at the National Children's Hospital during the 2014 outbreak. Photo: VNA

Hanoi has the highest number of measles cases

At the conference on disease prevention, food safety and ensuring medical activities during Tet 2015 organized by the Ministry of Health on the morning of February 5 in Hanoi, Director of the Department of Preventive Medicine Tran Dac Phu said that the current measles cases are most concentrated at the National Children's Hospital with 21 cases.

According to Mr. Phu, the fact that the cases are mainly concentrated in Hanoi is a worrying thing because there is a high risk of small outbreaks appearing. Other provinces and cities that have also recorded measles patients include: Bac Ninh, Phu Tho, Hai Duong, Hung Yen, Ha Nam, Bac Giang, Quang Ninh, Thai Nguyen, Thanh Hoa, Quang Tri, Ho Chi Minh City, Dak Lak.

Analyzing measles, Mr. Phu expressed: “We are very concerned about the measles epidemic in the winter-spring season because according to the trend of 2014, although January had a low number of suspected measles rash fever cases, by May 2014 there were more than 10,000 cases of the disease. While measles is a viral infectious disease, easily transmitted through the respiratory tract and easily breaks out into an epidemic, Vietnam has not yet eliminated measles.”

Currently, the number of measles cases nationwide at central hospitals is reported to fall mainly on children under 12 months old.

At the National Children's Hospital, of the 21 measles cases, most were children under 2 years old, of which children under 9 months old accounted for 13 cases (61%), 3 cases were children from 9 months to 1 year old and 5 cases were children from 1-2 years old. Notably, among these patients, 4 cases were definitely not vaccinated, the remaining 17 cases did not have a history of whether the child had been vaccinated against measles or not.

Faced with concerns that the measles epidemic could return like the 2014 epidemic, Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Long directed that in addition to the measles-rubella vaccination campaign being implemented for children aged 1-14, localities need to immediately organize vaccination for children aged 9 months to 1 year, without waiting for service vaccines. Because it is currently the time of winter-spring epidemics, including measles, any child who has not been vaccinated is at risk of contracting the disease.

Deterrence of vaccine suppliers

At the conference, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien paid special attention to the issue of vaccination.

The head of the health sector, for example, said that measles has returned to the US even though the country announced measles elimination in 2000. Therefore, Vietnam needs to learn lessons on how to achieve the highest vaccination rate in the country, especially in areas with vaccination gaps.

Vaccination is the best way to prevent diseases for children. Photo: VNA

The Minister requested that units vigorously implement regular vaccination activities for children 9-12 months old, in addition to reviewing the vaccination model, focusing only on three days a month as presently, causing some children to be late in vaccination, increasing the possibility of disease infection.

Ms. Tien emphasized that the current health system is smooth from top to bottom, providing all types of vaccines in the expanded immunization program. The expanded immunization system ensures vaccination of about 1.5 million people/year.

To prevent measles, at the conference, Associate Professor Phu recommended that people need to vaccinate their children on schedule when they start getting measles at 9 months old, and not wait for service vaccinations.

According to experts, the service vaccine is injected when the child is 1 year old, so the risk of the child getting measles before the time for the service vaccine is very high. Meanwhile, the 5 in 1 and 6 in 1 service vaccines have not been provided in a timely manner recently, so many children are not vaccinated on schedule, but their parents do not let them get the free vaccination in the program.

Regarding the work of rectifying the provision of service vaccines, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien affirmed: "Service vaccination registration points must take care of placing orders. When enough people have been vaccinated, if any unit is not capable of supplying service vaccines compared to the needs of registered people, the unit will not be allowed to register for service vaccination."

In the vaccination work, the Minister of Health emphasized that incidents of injecting the wrong vaccine or injecting distilled water are unfortunate incidents that will destroy people's trust in the health sector.

“Therefore, I tell Vietnamese vaccine production facilities that if they produce similar vials with similar industrial designs, labels, and colors, it is easy to confuse them. They need to separate each type of vaccine with its own label. They must thoroughly train those sitting at the injection table. Even if there is a station chief or deputy station chief, if they are not trained, they will not be allowed to inject,” Ms. Tien emphasized.

To promote more effective vaccination, Mr. Phu also suggested that provincial and central hospitals could deploy free expanded vaccination rooms at hospitals. The reason is that people prefer to get vaccinated here because they have full emergency equipment and doctors, and will provide faster emergency care in case of post-vaccination reactions.

According to Vietnam+