VietNamNet Bridge – Chief Representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Vietnam Jean-Marc Olive said he is impressed with the effectiveness of Vietnam’s extended immunisation programme.

Photo: VNN

Addressing a seminar on vaccination in Hanoi on March 20, the WHO official spoke highly of the programme, which has helped to reduce the incidence of diseases in 2007 as compared with the figures in 1984, when the programme had not been inaugurated.

Jean-Marc Olive quoted Vietnam’s elimination of polio in 2000 and neo-natal tetanus in 2005 to prove his remark.

He also said WHO would further its assistance to Vietnam in carrying out the extended immunisation programme, training and disseminating information to the community in order to deal with diseases.

Vietnam’s expanded immunisation programme over the past 23 years has covered all of its rural communes and urban streets, with a ratio of complete vaccination constantly exceeding 90 percent as from 1993.

The country has set up an effective system of preserving and transporting vaccines, thus reducing children’s incidences of diphtheria, measles, whooping cough, and tetanus.

To uphold the results, the health care sector is continuing its work in opening more refresher courses for local workers, and disseminating information in order to raise the people’s awareness of vaccination.

At the seminar, Vietnamese and WHO experts also mentioned the fact that many newborns have not yet vaccinated against hepatitis B, alarming the risk of a high incidence among adults in several decades.

The WHO recommended Vietnamese mothers to take their babies to medical wards for vaccination. The country now has 10-15 percent of mothers infected with hepatitis B virus.

(Source: VNA)