HCM City identifies babies in need of measles shots

The Ministry of Health is undertaking the campaign to increase immunisation coverage to prevent a repeat of the measles outbreak in 2014.

HCM City’s Preventive Health Centre reported that 400 people are suspected to have contracted measles so far this year.

The city has seen a rise in measles cases since the end of September, and the centre warned it would continue if the number of children without measles shots was not reduced.

The vaccination campaign will end next January, Dr Nguyen Tri Dung, the centre’s head, told a recent meeting with health centres in all 24 districts.

The Thu Duc District Health Centre worked with the local education division to obtain a list of children aged between one and five at kindergartens and nurseries.

It then asked managers and teachers of kindergartens and nurseries which children are yet to get two doses of the measles vaccine.

This process revealed that 4,803 children need to get vaccinated. Centre officials wrote to these children’s families to say they should take them to the nearest health centre for vaccination.

But Dung said this is not an effective method since many families fail to carry out the task.

The centre should instead collaborate with kindergartens and nurseries to provide vaccines there, he suggested.

The Tan Phu District Health Centre is collaborating with the population division to visit each family to draw up a list of unvaccinated children and tell their families about the campaign.

Dr Nguyen Huu Hung, Deputy Dead of the city’s Department of Health, said it was important to identify which children in the community had not been immunised.

In September and October, the city carried out a free programme to vaccinate children born in 2016 and 2017, but Hung said it did not reach enough children.

The Preventive Health Centre said recently that several hospitals and other vaccine centres do not give children measles shots at nine months, waiting instead until they are one year old to give them a combined measles-rubella shot despite the Ministry of Health’s recommendation that children should be immunised against measles at nine months.

The Department of Health has since instructed all hospitals and immunisation centres to comply with the ministry’s instructions.