Vietnam stops using Quinvaxem 5-in-1 vaccine
The Quinvaxem replacement vaccine will be used on a pilot basis from next April and will begin widespread use expected from May 2018.
From next April, Vietnam will start using a new 5-in-1 vaccine to prevent diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, hepatitis B and Hib for children, replacing the familiar Korean Quinvaxem vaccine, because the Qiunvaxem factory in Korea stopped producing this product.
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| Quinvaxem vaccine. Photo: Internet |
The replacement vaccine Quinvaxem, produced in India, also meets the same pre-qualification standards of the World Health Organization (WHO) as Quinvaxem. Before being licensed for circulation in Vietnam, this vaccine was also used in more than 40 countries around the world with a total of over 400 million doses and achieved a safety rate according to WHO standards.
The National Expanded Immunization Project said that starting next April, the new vaccine will be piloted on a small scale in four provinces, and could be expanded to be deployed from May.
Although the new vaccine is already in use in many countries, the Immunization Project will conduct thorough nationwide training and guidance before rolling it out for widespread use.
Quinvaxem vaccine has been used in Vietnam for nearly 10 years, used to inject children at 2, 3, and 4 months of age and is a vaccine that is of great interest to parents due to the large number of injections (each year Vietnam uses nearly 5 million injections of the 5-in-1 vaccine, the vast majority of which is Quinvaxem).
In addition, there have been some children who have had severe reactions after receiving this vaccine. In 2017 alone, there were 9 cases of reactions after receiving Quinvaxem, 8/9 were after using Quinvaxem and OPV, and 1 case was only using Quinvaxem.
