Vietnam Mulls Bill for Compensation for Victims of Vaccination Accidents

Relevant agencies in Vietnam are considering a draft bill ruling on the payment of compensation to victims of vaccination accidents, but experts say it is difficult to confirm the reasons leading to such mishaps. The bill also suggests paying compensation to victims’ relatives who are heirs by law. However, the draft bill rules on compensation for victims of accidents which are the result of the quality of vaccines, not individual allergies to the injections. Although numerous healthy people have died or been physically damaged after receiving vaccination injections in the last 30 years, none of the cases were confirmed as the result of vaccine quality. In the past 12 months, over a hundred people have become victims after having vaccination injections, including 31 pregnant women who were given wrong shots and 60 children given distilled water instead of vaccine for measles and rubella. In another case, medical staff gave vaccines used for children aged from 18 months to three months old. In April, a child died after receiving an injection of the tuberculosis vaccine. Nguyen Nhat Cam, director of the Hanoi Preventive Medicine Center, proposed that Vietnam require insurance companies cover accidents related to vaccination injections. The treatment cost for a victim of a bad vaccination injection is certainly covered by the state-owned health insurance agency, Cam added. “Compensation for accidents resulting from the mistakes of medical staff is covered by the very staff,” he insisted. “Accidents stemming from the quality of a vaccine are covered by the state.” In the past, accidents after vaccination injections were mostly blamed on the ill condition of victims. When the bill becomes law, accidents caused by vaccination injections will be judged by a professional assembly, Cam said. (Tuoi Tre – Youth Aug 12)