The Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health yesterday said that since 2015 vaccine against Japanese encephalitis has been officially included into the National Expanded Immunization Program (NEIP) and is vaccinated monthly.
As per the Ministry’s decision, instead of immunizing kids according to a fixed timetable, localities will administer vaccine against Japanese encephalitis for kids along with other vaccines in the program.
The schedule for vaccinating Japanese encephalitis includes the first shot will be administered when a kid is one year old; the first shot and the second shot is one to two weeks apart and the third shot is one year after the second shot.
After one year implementation, nearly 2 million kids across the country were immunized two shots of Japanese encephalitis accounting for 91.1 percent and nearly 1,700,000 kids were vaccinated three shots of Japanese encephalitis in monthly immunization.
Many provinces including the northern provinces of Bac Ninh, Phu Tho, Vinh Phuc, Hung Yen, Thai Nguyen, Lai Chau , Tuyen Quang , Cao Bang, Yen Bai, Lao CAi, Son La, the central provinces of Quang Binh, Thua Thien- Hue, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, the Mekong delta province of Tien Giang , Can Tho, Hau Giang, Ca Mau, Dong Thap have had high rate of kids injected with the vaccine 95 percent. 36 over 63 cities and provinces have reported high rate of kids injected wit the third shots in the NEIP.
The inclusion of the vaccine into NEIP aims to ensure that kids are vaccinated when they are at one.
