Ministry of Health: 'The whole country has run out of 5-in-1 vaccine'

The whole country has run out of 5-in-1 vaccines, and some other vaccines are also gradually running out, causing the vaccination rate to fall short of the plan and be lower than in 2021, according to the Ministry of Health.

"The whole country has run out of 5-in-1 vaccines since February. DPT vaccines are also starting to run out. The remaining vaccines can be used sporadically from now until the end of the year," said Ms. Duong Thi Hong, Deputy Director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Ministry of Health, at the 2022 expanded immunization review conference in the Southern region on May 23.

The 5-in-1 vaccine, also known as DPT-VGB-HiB, prevents diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, hepatitis B, Hib pneumonia and Hib meningitis. According to Ms. Hong, currently only a few districts and communes still have a few doses of the 5-in-1 vaccine, enough to last until April.

Some other vaccines in the expanded immunization program such as DPT vaccine are also starting to run out; BCG vaccine (to prevent tuberculosis), measles, rubella can be used until August; bOPV (oral polio vaccine) will be in short supply in the next few months; tetanus vaccine can be used until the end of 2023.

In fact, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and many provinces such as Tien Giang, An Giang, Quang Ninh, Ha Giang, Binh Duong... have run out of vaccines for children. The lack of vaccines has caused the expanded vaccination rate in Ho Chi Minh City to be low. In the first four months of the year, Ho Chi Minh City only achieved 77.3% of full vaccination for children under one year old, while the target is 95%.

In recent years, the Ministry of Health has purchased vaccines for the Expanded Immunization Program from the central budget allocated by the Ministry of Finance. The vaccines are then distributed to localities to organize free vaccinations for children. However, the interruption in vaccine supply has occurred since last summer. The reason is due to some procedures related to procurement regulations, including price. Vaccine manufacturers said that "vaccines are available in stock, but cannot be released for vaccination."

The shortage becomes more serious when, according to new regulations, from 2023, the Ministry of Finance will not allocate budget for the Ministry of Health to purchase, and propose to implement according to regulations on budget decentralization. That is, localities will purchase expanded vaccination vaccines themselves to serve the needs of the provinces and cities. In this context, localities are complaining about difficulties because they have not yet deployed them, have not found a source of supply, and are also worried about the difference in purchase prices.

Vaccination for children at the hospital. Photo:Chi Le — Vaccination for children at the hospital. Photo: *Chile*

Ms. Hoang Ngoc Mai, representative of the National Expanded Immunization Program, said that in the southern region, 90 districts of 15 provinces and cities have low vaccination rates, below 80%. According to Ms. Mai, this puts infectious diseases at risk of outbreaks on a large scale. The World Health Organization (WHO) has ranked the possibility of polio returning to Vietnam from the lowest level to medium-high.

Responding to VnExpress , National Assembly delegate Pham Khanh Phong Lan, President of the Ho Chi Minh City Pharmacy Association, also pointed out the risk that if there is no vaccine, many dangerous epidemics can return. For example, in 2014, measles broke out, a series of children died, the reason was that measles vaccination at that time was not good and then the whole country spent a lot of effort to overcome it.

"So vaccination is the most effective measure, otherwise we will pay with people's lives," Ms. Lan emphasized.

To address the shortage of vaccines, the Expanded Immunization Program has asked localities to compile vaccine needs and report to the Ministry of Health. The Ministry is also submitting a report to the Government and will have some reports in the upcoming National Assembly session, hoping to continue to have centralized vaccine supply as before, according to Ms. Hong.

"Next June, the Ministry of Health will issue a document requesting the number of vaccine orders and the time for localities to receive vaccines," Ms. Hong said, suggesting that when localities sign contracts with manufacturers and receive vaccines, they should try to implement vaccinations to avoid a surplus or shortage of vaccines.

Expanded Immunization is a national, free immunization program that protects children from a number of common and highly fatal infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, hepatitis B, measles, Japanese encephalitis, cholera, typhoid, pneumonia, and Hib meningitis.

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