WHO and UNICEF recommend continuing Quinvaxem vaccination

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on December 19 issued a joint statement on vaccination regarding safety information of the Quinvaxem vaccine.

WHO and UNICEF affirm that vaccination is a particularly important task to protect children's health; at the same time, they recommend that parents continue to vaccinate their children with the prescribed vaccines, including the Quinvaxem "5 in 1" vaccine to prevent 5 diseases: diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, Haemophilus type B and hepatitis B.

Illustration photo. Source: baohaiquan.vn

The 'Pentavalent' vaccine protects children against five life-threatening diseases. The risk of dying from or getting diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, Hib or hepatitis B is much greater than any possible side effects from the vaccine. So vaccination remains the simplest and most effective way to protect your child from disease.

WHO and UNICEF recommend that all parents check their children's vaccination status to ensure that their vaccinations are up to date.

These two organizations assessed that over the past year, many parents in Vietnam have been worried about the link between a small number of children who died or had unwanted reactions and the vaccination with the "5 in 1" Quinvaxem vaccine.

At the request of the Government of Vietnam, these two organizations helped support an investigation with independent domestic and international technical support on the use of the “5-in-1” vaccine in Vietnam. The investigation results found no evidence to indicate that the quality and safety of the “5-in-1” vaccine directly or indirectly led to the deaths of children after vaccination.

In June 2013, the results of Vietnam's investigation were also presented at a global meeting of independent experts on vaccine safety.

Independent experts have reviewed evidence from Vietnam and several other countries such as Bhutan, India, and Sri Lanka. But after a very thorough review, they concluded that there was no evidence of safety problems with the “5 in 1” vaccine in these countries. The report has been made publicly available globally./.

According to the Communist Party of Vietnam