Vietnam boosts hepatitis B vaccination for newborns in remote areas
Vietnam is promoting hepatitis B vaccination for newborns in mountainous and remote areas where the customs of giving birth at home still challenges immunization efforts.
A medical worker prepares to administer vaccine to a baby in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam is promoting hepatitis Bvaccination for newborns in mountainous and remote areas where the customs ofgiving birth at home still challenges immunization efforts.
In the first three months of 2018, vaccinationcoverage was expanded on schedule. The rate of babies getting hepatitis B shotswithin 24 hours of birth reached 16.9 percent, compared to 16.2 percent in thesame period of 2017.
Meanwhile, the immunization rates oftuberculosis vaccine (BCG), polio vaccine (OPV), and combined DPT-VGB-Hibvaccine against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, hepatitis B, andhaemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) have also been higher from a year earlier, accordingto the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) under the Ministryof Health.
NIHE Deputy Director Duong Thi Hong said thevaccination coverage has surpassed 95 percent nationwide. However, how toincrease the immunization rate and quality in mountainous and rural areasremains a big challenge to the country. Unfavourable transport conditions,different ethnic languages and the custom of shifting cultivation have hamperedethnics’ access to immunization.
Although the rate of hepatitis B vaccinationamong babies in their first 24 hours has been improved, it still needs to beboosted in some mountainous and remote provinces where the custom of givingbirth at home is popular, she added.
NIHE Director Dang Duc Anh said from now to the endof 2018, the expanded immunization project will continue working with thehealth ministry’s Department for Medical Examination and Treatment Managementand the National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology to step up vaccinationagainst hepatitis B virus at medical facilities with delivery rooms.
With the help of the World Health Organisation(WHO), the project will pilot administering hepatitis B vaccine to newborns athome in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai in 2018.
He noted that the immunization will also beexpanded in rural clinics in northern Yen Bai, Son La, Bac Kan and Bac Giangprovinces and central Nghe An, Quang Binh and Khanh Hoa provinces.-VNA
A workshop was held in Hanoi on May 22 to gather ideas for the building of a national action plan to eliminate the transmission of HIV, hepatitis B and syphilis from mothers to children.
Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long laid stress on the importance of immunisation for public health and calling parents to get their children fully and properly vaccinated at a meeting held in Buon Ma Thuot city, the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak on June 15.
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A medical worker prepares to administer vaccine to a baby in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak (Photo: VNA) 
