Scarcity and price chaos of 6-in-1 vaccine

6-in-1 vaccine shortage
Her son is nearly 3 months old, but up to now, Nguyen Thi Phuong and her husband (Hung Phuc ward, Vinh city) have not been able to vaccinate him. Worried that the delay in vaccinating will affect the effectiveness of the vaccine, the couple has been running around to several vaccination service points in Vinh city for the past 2 days but still have no vaccine.

Having an acquaintance working in the medical field, she was introduced to a vaccination room on Ly Thuong Kiet Street. However, here she also had to schedule an injection because there was no vaccine available. Sharing about this situation, Ms. Phuong said: My child is still young so I want him to be vaccinated early because there is still a vaccination schedule for the expanded program. But now I don't know where to get the right injection because everywhere is out of vaccine.

At the vaccination service room of the Provincial Preventive Medicine Center, despite the rain and cold weather, at just over 8am, dozens of mothers brought their children to hope to get the 6-in-1 vaccine. However, in response to this, appointments were scheduled for the weekend. When giving instructions to customers, the medical staff of the vaccination room did not forget to remind: the clinic starts working at 7:30am. Therefore, parents should remember to come early to avoid running out of medicine.

Parents come to register for the 6-in-1 vaccination for their children. Photo: My Ha

Many parents are concerned about the vaccine shortage. Ms. Nguyen Thi Hai Yen, who lives in Tan Son commune, Do Luong district, just gave birth to her first child, so she is very worried about her child's health. Therefore, although the commune has a 5-in-1 vaccination program for children, she still went to Vinh to vaccinate her child with the correct dose because she was afraid that the vaccination would not be guaranteed. However, even though she brought her child directly to the vaccination room, her wish could not be fulfilled.

Similarly, Ms. Le Thi Bich Duyen also traveled all the way from Nghi Xuan district (Ha Tinh) to take her 6-month-old child to get the 6-in-1 vaccine. However, when she arrived, she was told to wait until the weekend and had to take a taxi to return.

Inquiring at the Vaccination Room in front of the Provincial Preventive Medicine Center, we also learned that: Previously, when the supply was quite abundant, the clinic injected about 300 doses of the 6-in-1 vaccine every day. But now, there are only about 100 doses a week and mainly prioritize children for booster shots.

Children who need the first injection are almost unable to meet the demand. The reason for the shortage is that currently the vaccination clinics are not proactive in the number of children registering, so they do not dare to take many doses for prevention. Meanwhile, to preserve the 6-in-1 vaccine is very strict, with the temperature must be guaranteed from 2 - 80C. If the temperature is not guaranteed, the vaccine will quickly deteriorate and cause great damage.

Vaccine price chaos

Children need to be vaccinated on schedule. Photo: My Ha

The 6-in-1 vaccine is indicated to prevent 6 diseases: Diphtheria - Whooping cough - Tetanus - Polio - Hepatitis B and diseases caused by Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib) in 1 injection, helping to reduce the number of vaccinations for children, saving time and money. In addition, these two vaccines help reduce side effects that may occur after vaccination. Currently, there are two types of 6-in-1 vaccines on the market: the 6-in-1 Hexaxin vaccine from France and the 6-in-1 Infanrix Hexa vaccine from Belgium.

Although these two vaccines have been around for a long time, they have been out of stock for many months now. Due to the high demand from parents, the prices of the vaccines on the market are quite different. For example, at the vaccination room in front of the Provincial Preventive Medicine Center, a dose of the Belgian 6-in-1 vaccine is 855,000 VND, and the French vaccine is 920,000 VND.

Meanwhile, at Vinh International Hospital, when we asked, the staff here answered that the price was 1,525,000 VND for both types of vaccines. At the vaccination room on Ly Thuong Kiet Street, the listed price announced on the personal page is 1,050,000 VND (Belgium) and 1,200,000 VND (France). In fact, although the price of vaccines is very different, many parents still try their best to get a dose of vaccine for their children.

Doctor Hoang Ngoc Dan - Head of the Consulting and Preventive Treatment Clinic - Provincial Preventive Medicine Center said: Currently, Nghe An has about 60,000 children under 1 year old each year and the expanded immunization program provides all 5-in-1 vaccine injections for children and is completely free.

During the time of vaccine shortage, Dr. Hoang Ngoc Dan advised parents not to worry too much and can replace it with the 5-in-1 vaccine (service) or the 5-in-1 vaccine of the national immunization program and not to worry too much about quality.

In case of unusual symptoms such as pain and swelling at the injection site (crying), discomfort, high fever, refusal to breastfeed, vomiting, go to the hospital immediately.

In addition, people are advised not to "run" after services and ignore the golden period for vaccinating their children. The best time is from 2 months to 1 year old. The injections need to be given continuously according to the prescribed vaccination schedule.