Due to the complicated development of measles in Ho Chi Minh City, Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien yesterday led a delegation to check epidemic prevention task in the center and the Children Hospital No. 1, the Tropical Disease Hospital as well as the municipal Department of Health.
According to a representative of the medical center in ward 15, from January 1 to February 28, the district has reported 60 measles children aged from 6 to 15 who were not fully vaccinated because their parents fear the vaccine’s side effects so they have taken children to infirmaries for immunization.
Health Minister Tien expressed her concern over infected cases of children under nine months and over 16 years old because of unfully vaccinated.
Worse, Director of the Preventive Medicine Center Nguyen Tri Dung fretted that patients didn’t write their home address clearly. He proposed to have code for each newborn baby to facilitate inoculation. Additionally, local medical centers should liaise with schools to give unvaccinated kids a shot.
The health sector should update the home address of babies, he said.
Health Minister while visiting the Children Hospital No.1 was talking to children patients there noticing hospital leaders to cross-infection.
Deputy Director of the Department of Health Dr. Nguyen Huu Hung said the city has reported 4,327 measles cases from 2018 to February, 2019. At present, the disease tends to decline. Up to 97 percent of inpatients over nine months old had not been immunized.
Dr. Hung Hung added that 139,005 children have not been inoculated in the campaign to inject measles and rubella on kids aged 1 – 5 because parents have had no demand and forgotten their kids’ vaccination history.
The Tropical Disease Hospital said that from the beginning of the year, it has admitted 1,100 measles inpatients and two third of them are city dwellers while the remaining are from neighboring provinces. Measles cases are trending downward.
Head of the Children Hospital’s Infection – Nerve Department Dr. Truong Huu Khanh stressed the rise in measles cases is due to loophole in vaccination. To address the matter, medical clinics mush tighten control over their jurisdiction.
Health Minister Tien requested medical clinics to enhance vaccination by increasing information of vaccination benefit. She emphasized the close monitor on immunization management.
