Paid Vaccine Prices in Vietnam Surge due to Scarcity

The prices of paid vaccines in Vietnam have surged between 5% and 10% recently due to scarcity and foreign manufacturers hiking their quotes, according to the Hanoi Preventive Medicine Center. The price of a dose of vaccine against typhoid has gone up from VND135,000 ($6) to VND185,000 ($8.2). That of the pentaxim or five-in-one vaccine has surged to VND710,000 from VND630,000. Pentaxim vaccine is used for infants from six weeks of age against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, poliomyelitis and invasive infections caused by Haemophilus influenzae type B. Other vaccines that have their prices hiked include those against meningitis, rabies, and chickenpox. Despite the price increases, a Hanoi preventative health center said it has run out of many kinds of vaccine, including the pentaxim one. He said the center would receive a new lot of the five-in-one vaccine by the end of October. Nguyen Nhat Cam, director of the Hanoi Preventive Medicine Center, attributed the problem to changes in exchange rates and the law on market supply and demand. Dang Hong Thuy, director of a vaccines importing company in northern Vietnam, said the prices of imported vaccines in Vietnam have soared only lately after many years of being kept unchanged. Previously, vaccine suppliers gave Vietnam a 10% discount on the prices of many kinds of vaccine but they have scrapped the discount so the quotes in the Vietnamese market go up. The rises in the prices of vaccines have badly affected many families who choose to get inoculation as an optional service. Meanwhile, though a national mandatory inoculation program which provides free vaccination for all children is being implemented, the program has failed to get trust from the public as there have been many accidental deaths after injections. (tuoitrenews.vn Sept 15 p2,3)