After two years without a case, measles has broken out again in five localities, leaving two children dead in the past several days, health authorities reported. The disease has been recorded since the beginning of this year in Hanoi and Yen Bai, Lao Cai and Son La provinces in the north and Ho Chi Minh City in the south, said Tran Dac Phu, head of the Preventive Health Department under the Ministry of Health. In Yen Bai alone, measles has affected 99 children, mostly in Van Chan District. One of these children, a 3 year old, died on January 31. The other incidence of death from measles was that of a seven-month-old baby in Hanoi’s Dong Anh District a few days ago.      In Lao Cai, Son La, and Ho Chi Minh City, the respective numbers of children who have contracted measles are 117, 87, and 10. As measles has also broken out in China, Vietnam’s provinces that border the neighboring country are at risk, the department warned. The disease has not appeared in Vietnam for the past two years as a result of a repeat vaccination program that was implemented broadly, especially in mountain provinces, Phu said.

Parents should take their children to hospital immediately if they develop typhus and serious coughing bouts. Measles is a benign disease but it can cause immunodeficiency rapidly, leading to other diseases including pneumonia and diarrhea, which can be very serious and even cause death, Phu said.     Vaccines aren’t 100% preventative It is worth noting that even children who were vaccinated against measles have contracted the disease. “Of the total number of patients, 20 percent have been vaccinated with the first shot and another 20 percent have been vaccinated with the first shot and the repeat shot,” Phu said. Explaining why children who received the vaccination have still contracted measles, Phu said the vaccine only prevents 80-90 percent of vaccinated children from becoming infected with measles. The disease has yet to spread widely in Hanoi and HCMC, where vaccination is more regulated than in more rural localities, which have seen higher numbers of patients. “The process of vaccination in remote and mountainous areas has yet to be improved. In some provinces, the measles vaccine is transported by horses,” Phu said.Adolescents also affected Another issue that concerns health experts is that measles has been recorded not only in children under five, as is expected, but also in adolescents. These adolescents did not contract measles in the past so they are not immune from the disease, or they have yet to be vaccinated or they have already been vaccinated but the vaccination was not effective, Phu explained. Such adolescents can now receive a vaccination against measles but they have to pay for it, since the free extended measles vaccination program is intended for children only, Phu said.