According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, for many years, the provision of vaccines under the Expanded Immunization Program (EPI) has been undertaken by the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (National EPI Program).
However, since 2022, the supply of vaccines under the EPI Program has been interrupted due to changes in the vaccine procurement mechanism after the end of the Health - Population Target Program. This has interrupted the supply of some vaccines under the EPI Program in the City for a certain period of time, including measles, diphtheria - whooping cough - tetanus and 5-in-1 vaccines.
In that context, since August 15, the City Health Sector has received 12,400 doses of 5-in-1 vaccine allocated by the Ministry of Health from support from the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund.
After a period of vaccination for children according to regulations, by October 10, there were only less than 3,000 doses of this vaccine left, expected to run out within the next 2 weeks.
The number of vaccines for the EPI program in Ho Chi Minh City is not much left.
To resolve difficulties in supplying vaccines under the EPI Program nationwide, on July 10, 2023, the Prime Minister issued Resolution 98/NQ-CP on allocating the central budget for 2023 and assigned the Ministry of Health to purchase vaccines under the EPI Program in accordance with regulations.
Accordingly, the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology is making efforts to resume the vaccine procurement process. On October 6, the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology sent Document No. 1983/VSDTTU to localities requesting a review of the demand for DPT-VGB-Hib vaccine (5-in-1 vaccine).
Also in this document, the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology said that it is expected that by the end of December 2023 at the earliest, there will be a resupply of vaccines under the EPI Program, including the 5-in-1 vaccine.
Currently, the vaccine source under the EPI Program in the City is running out, specifically: DPT-VGB-Hib vaccine (5-in-1 vaccine) has only about 3,000 doses left, measles-Rubell vaccine has 2,300 doses left, measles vaccine has 660 doses left, tetanus vaccine has 600 doses left, hepatitis B vaccine has 89 doses left..., HCDC predicts that this amount of vaccine is only enough to be injected within 2 more weeks.
In this situation, the City Health Department has continued to recommend the Ministry of Health to direct the acceleration of the vaccine supply roadmap under the EPI Program. At the same time, the City Center for Disease Control continues to reasonably coordinate the remaining vaccine sources among localities in the City and instruct ward and commune health stations to review and strictly manage the list of children who are due for new vaccinations and booster vaccinations to promptly remind and deploy vaccinations as soon as the vaccine supply is available again.
The Department of Health also informed that currently, the 5-in-1 vaccine is still available as a service. In case of necessity, parents can consider taking their children to medical facilities for consultation and vaccination as needed.
Source
Comment (0)