Vaccination is an effective way to prevent disease in children - Photo: VGP/HM
54 provinces and cities are implementing vaccination.
Implementing the Prime Minister's direction in Official Dispatch No. 23/CD-TTg dated March 15 on accelerating measles vaccination, speaking with reporters of the Government Electronic Newspaper, a representative of the Ministry of Health said that, up to now, based on the proposed needs of localities, the Ministry has developed a plan for measles vaccination in 2025, the second phase, which will be deployed in 54 provinces and cities and direct the implementation of catch-up vaccination for children from 1 to 5 years old who have not been fully vaccinated with measles-containing doses.
According to the Ministry of Health, up to now, 63/63 provinces and cities have been implementing catch-up vaccinations, catch-up vaccinations for those who have not received enough doses, and campaign vaccinations. Of these, 9 provinces and cities have completed the campaigns, and 54 provinces and cities are continuing to implement them.
Specifically, for the 1-10 year old group, 17/17 provinces and cities have issued plans, starting to implement from February 2025. For the 6-9 month old group, 25/25 provinces and cities have issued plans and started to implement vaccination in late February and March 2025.
To date, the vaccination rate for children aged 6-9 months in 24 localities has reached 30.1% (38,774/129,009 children); the vaccination rate for children aged 1-10 years in 17 provinces and cities has reached 59.7% (125,795/210,573 children).
Some provinces have implemented the measles vaccination campaign in 2025 but are still slow, such as: Dak Nong, Nghe An, Thanh Hoa, Binh Thuan, Bac Giang, Soc Trang, Ben Tre, Tay Ninh, Dong Thap, Binh Phuoc.
54 provinces and cities are implementing measles vaccination for children - Photo: VGP/HM
Reasons for slow implementation in some localities
According to the Ministry of Health, one of the reasons why the implementation of the measles vaccination campaign has been prolonged is due to the implementation of procedures and regulations on receiving aid, quality control, vaccine allocation, and localities needing time to review, count the subjects in the vaccination campaign, and organize training before officially implementing.
However, there are some provinces and cities that are slow to deploy despite having been allocated vaccines such as: Kon Tum, Hau Giang, Lam Dong, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, which approved plans and organized implementation late (vaccines were allocated from September 2024, but vaccinations were only started in November and December 2024).
In 2025, the vaccination plan was approved in January 2025, vaccines were allocated from the beginning of February, however, it was not until early March that the provinces started organizing the vaccination campaign and so far Kon Tum province has not organized it.
According to the Ministry of Health, localities have not been proactive in ensuring vaccines and funding for implementation. In addition to vaccines mobilized by the Ministry of Health from foreign aid (except for Ho Chi Minh City, which proactively provided 300,000 doses after the epidemic was declared), Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Kon Tum, Dak Nong, Dong Thap, and Long An have arranged separate funding for activities in the vaccination campaign (for logistics, purchasing supplies, screening vaccination subjects, organizing training, communication, etc.); other localities have integrated them into regular expanded vaccination activities.
In addition, the statistics and management of subjects in need of vaccination are still limited and not close to reality, especially in remote areas due to difficulties in accessing the area and large urban areas (many cases of transient, highly volatile in a short time); the implementation of information technology applications has been promoted but has not been implemented synchronously, so the statistics, review and management of subjects in the vaccination age group are not close to actual data.
How is measles vaccine distributed to localities?
The Ministry of Health said that it has sent a dispatch to provinces and cities to determine the need for vaccines for those who have not received enough doses of measles-containing vaccine and has compiled the needs of localities.
Of which, the vaccine demand of 54 provinces and cities (except for 9 provinces and cities that have completed the 2024-2025 campaigns) is estimated at about 200,000 doses for children aged 6-9 months, and 900,000 doses for children aged 1-10 years.
Regarding vaccine supply, the Ministry of Health has mobilized aid from the Vietnam Vaccine Joint Stock Company of 500,000 doses of measles vaccine (200,000 doses for children aged 6-9 months, 300,000 doses for children aged 6-10 years) to implement the campaign.
At the same time, children aged 1-5 who have not received enough doses of measles-containing vaccine will be given a catch-up dose using the vaccine in the Expanded Immunization Program according to the 2025 Expanded Immunization Plan of the Ministry of Health (about 500,000 doses).
Regarding domestic vaccine supply capacity, according to information from the Center for Research and Production of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals (Polyvac), the Center has provided Vietnam Vaccine Joint Stock Company with 500,000 doses to donate to the Ministry of Health; there are currently 240,000 doses of Measles-Rubella vaccine available.
In addition, Polyvac has produced and is testing 300,000 doses of single measles vaccine. According to the plan, the unit will produce about 600,000 more single doses from now until the end of March 2025. In case of demand, the Company will meet about 300,000 doses of vaccine (single measles or measles-Rubella) per week.
The Ministry of Health has also directed the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology to coordinate with relevant units to urgently allocate and transport vaccines promptly to provinces and cities (500,000 doses of the Expanded Immunization Program have been delivered to provinces and cities; it is expected that 200,000 doses of aid vaccines will be delivered on March 20 to regional institutes and completed to provinces and cities on March 21) to carry out catch-up vaccinations, catch-up vaccinations for subjects who have not received enough doses and campaign vaccinations, ensuring completion by March 31, 2025 at the latest.
Thus, the Ministry of Health said that the Ministry has ensured timely and adequate provision of measles vaccines to localities based on the proposed vaccine needs of localities.
The Ministry of Health recommends that localities ensure funding for measles vaccination. In particular, proactively arrange local funding to implement the measles vaccination campaign (including funding for screening vaccination subjects, organizing vaccination sessions, etc.)
At the same time, continue to allocate sufficient funds to implement the activities of the Expanded Immunization Program, including measles vaccination (except for activities guaranteed by the central budget).
Currently, there are no regulations on budget allocation to ensure vaccines for epidemic vaccination. Therefore, the Ministry of Health is proposing to amend and supplement a number of articles of Decree No. 104/2016/ND-CP regulating vaccination activities, including adding regulations on central budget allocation to ensure vaccines and organize the implementation of periodic vaccination campaigns for a number of epidemics.
In response to the WHO's warning of the risk of a measles outbreak in the world and in Vietnam, since the beginning of 2024, the Ministry of Health has implemented synchronous measures to prevent and control the epidemic, in which vaccination is the best measure to proactively prevent measles.
In August-November 2024, based on the results of risk assessments from localities, the Ministry of Health proposed that WHO support vaccines and issue a plan to implement a measles vaccination campaign for children aged 1-10 and high-risk groups in 18 provinces and cities, then added 13 more provinces and cities for the second time.
In 2025, in response to the recorded number of children under the age of vaccination but infected with measles (accounting for nearly 20%), the Ministry of Health continued to propose WHO to support vaccines and issue a plan to implement a measles vaccination campaign in 2025, including adding the group of subjects aged 6-9 months in 24 provinces and cities and continuing to add 17 more provinces and cities to vaccinate the campaign for the group aged 1-10 years and high-risk groups.
Hien Minh
Comment (0)