That is the DPT-VGB-HiB vaccine (a 5-in-1 vaccine that prevents diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, hepatitis B, Hib pneumonia, and Hib meningitis). In 2022, this vaccine was also out of stock and was reissued in October, then out of stock again in March 2023. The second type is the DPT vaccine (which prevents 3 diseases: diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus) which has been out of stock since early May 2023.
In addition, other vaccines in the EPI are only available in very limited quantities and are expected to run out in the next few months if no more are provided. Specifically, by the end of May 2023, Ho Chi Minh City will run out of hepatitis B and Japanese encephalitis vaccines; by mid-June 2023, it will run out of tuberculosis (BCG) vaccines; in July 2023, it will run out of polio (bOPV) and measles vaccines; in August 2023, it will run out of tetanus (VAT) vaccines; and in September 2023, it will run out of measles and rubella (MR) vaccines.
In Ho Chi Minh City, vaccines in the expanded immunization program are only available in very limited quantities.
In the face of the above situation, the Department of Health directed the EPI facilities in the area to maintain regular operations according to a fixed schedule to vaccinate the remaining vaccines; make a list of children who have not been vaccinated but have not been vaccinated to invite them to vaccinate as soon as the vaccines are supplied again.
According to the Department of Health, on April 3, 2023, the Ministry of Health issued a document on the implementation of tasks under the Health and Population Target Program, converting them into regular expenditure tasks. Accordingly, from 2023, the Ministry of Finance will not allocate the central budget for the Ministry of Health to purchase vaccines for EPI, vitamin A for children under 5 years old, anti-HIV drugs (ARV), anti-tuberculosis drugs for subjects without health insurance cards... but proposes to implement according to regulations on budget decentralization. The Ministry of Health requests the People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities to allocate local budgets and other legally mobilized sources to implement the procurement and supply of the above-mentioned drugs and vaccines (including the supply of vaccines to prevent diseases caused by Rotavirus). The Ministry of Health requests the Provincial and City People's Committees to urgently direct the Department of Health and relevant units to proactively develop plans, implement the procurement and supply of drugs, vaccines... according to regulations, serving the work of EPI and disease prevention and control in the locality.
Faced with this new situation, the Department of Health has prepared resources and developed a plan to supply vaccines in the EPI in Ho Chi Minh City in 2023. However, on May 12, the Department of Health of Ho Chi Minh City received an urgent dispatch from the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology requesting health departments to send TCMR vaccine estimates for the remaining months of 2023 and reserve for the first 6 months of 2024 to be supplied again as before. The Department of Health has sent a document proposing the need from now until the end of the year to need more than 762,000 doses of various types of TCMR vaccines and more than 880,000 doses in the first 6 months of 2024. The Department of Health recommends that the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology soon resume supplying vaccines under the EPI.
On May 16, the Pasteur Institute of Ho Chi Minh City announced that it had resumed vaccination services for people after many months of interruption. The VNVC Vaccination Center also said that the unit has full range of vaccines for children and adults.
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