Vietnam Continues to Face Vaccine Shortage in 2015: Official

The shortage of paid vaccinations, foreign-made vaccines that local parents must be paid for having their children vaccinated, will continue this year, said Tran Dac Phu, director of the Preventive Medicine Department under the Ministry of Health. Dr. Phu attributed the shortage to the fact that foreign producers of the highly sought-after vaccines, believed to be of higher quality and safer than government ones which caused several incidents of illness last year, cannot raise their output to meet the demand. Only 30,000 doses of 6-in-1 vaccine, which is a combination of six different vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), hepatitis B, polio and Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib) will be available this year. While parents wait in long queues to pay for foreign-produced vaccinations, health officials have trouble encouraging people to take the government’s free vaccination whose supply is sufficient to meet demand. Getting babies vaccinated as soon as possible is important, but many parents are willing to wait for paid vaccination despite the ongoing shortages and the availability of government provided vaccinations. Hospital reports from last year showed that many of the children admitted for preventable diseases had not received vaccinations because the parents were waiting foreign-made vaccines. (Nong Thon Ngay Nay – Today Countryside Feb 26 p2)