Hanoi​ (VNA) 🦄– About 2 million children (91.1 percent) aged 1-5, nationwide have received two doses of vaccine against Japanese encephalitis (JE) since the vaccine began to be provided free of charge on a monthly basis a year ago.

According to the Ministry of Health’s General Department of Preventive Medicine, Vietnam has adopted a monthly schedule for JE vaccination in the national expanded programme on immunisation since early 2015, replacing the old one in which the vaccine is only given in a specific period of the year based on each locality’s schedule. It is recommended that the JE vaccination should be administered at least three times: the first injection when the child is a year old, the second dose one or two weeks after the first, and the last a year later. The general department also revealed that many provinces have reported a two-dose vaccination rate of more than 95 percent, including those in mountainous areas – Lai Chau, Tuyen Quang, Cao Bang, Yen Bai, Lao Cai and Son La. Approximately 1.7 million of the children received the third injection after a year. Some 36 out of 63 cities and provinces across the country had a three-dose rate of 95 percent last year. Since 1997, the national expanded immunisation programme has included the JE vaccination, focusing mainly on JE-prone districts in 12 cities and provinces. All 63 localities of the country have benefited from the JE immunisation programme since 2014.-VNA