Ho Chi Minh City health authorities initiated an extended a vaccination campaign to provide free immunizations against measles and rubella for 1.3 million children aged 1 to 14 across the city on Wednesday.>> Vietnam to launch largest-ever measles-rubella vaccination Of these children, 1.1 million are students, the city Health Department said. The mass vaccinations will be given to children aged 11-14 first, then to those aged 9-10, and finally to those aged 1-7, the department said. Accordingly, the vaccinations were scheduled to begin yesterday at three junior high schools – Ly Chinh Thanh in Hoc Mon District; Do Van Day, also in Hoc Mon; and Phu Dinh in District 6. However, the campaign only kicked off at the two latter schools, where more than 90 parents accepted the immunizations. According to a Ministry of Health regulation, vaccinations will be conducted at a school only when over 80 percent of the parents of its students agree to the immunization. At Phu Dinh, 1,700 students have been vaccinated in accordance with a process regulated by the ministry, including pre-vaccination check-ups and keeping students at school for 30 minutes after vaccination. There were no reports of complications after the vaccination, health authorities said.   Dr. Nguyen Thanh Khe, deputy director of the District 6 Preventive Health Center, said that children who have a fever of over 37 degrees Celsius, are taking antibiotics, or have been given the first shot against measles within the last month, are excluded from this campaign. Parents who have yet to agree to have their kid vaccinated will be invited to health centers where experts will advise them on the process. 

Dr. Nguyen Tri Dung, director of the city Preventive Health Center, said that vaccinations at schools will be carried out by classroom.  Only students of classrooms that obtain consent for the vaccination from over 80 prevent of students’ parents will be given a free immunization, Dung said. As for classrooms where the consent rates are below 80 percent, the school’s management and the health authorities will advise them, Dr. Dung said. The health department has asked all vaccination teams to strictly give medical check-ups to children before vaccination, he added. Meanwhile, Dr. Nguyen Tran Hien, chairman of the National Extended Vaccination Program, said that 368,000 children in 15 provinces and cities have so far received vaccinations against measles and rubella. Of these children, 210 suffered from post-vaccination responses, but no serious cases were reported, Dr. Hien said.

Although it is a benign disease, measles can cause serious complications that may lead to death. It can spread rapidly and 90 percent of children who have contact with measles-suffering peers may catch measles virus, Dr. Pham Nhat An, deputy director of the Hanoi-based Central Pediatrics Hospital, said. Meanwhile, rubella is an acute, contagious viral infection. The rubella virus is transmitted by airborne droplets when infected people sneeze or cough.

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