A free combined five-in-one vaccine programme for under one year-old children nation-wide started yesterday, said Trinh Quan Huan, Deputy Minister of Health.

The launch of the new five-in-one vaccine which inoculates children against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, hepatitis B and Hib is part of the expanded national immunisation programme.

About 2.3 million of five-in-one vaccines supplied by UNICEF are currently available, while medical units in the country are preparing to begin the programme.

"Using five-in-one vaccine will play an important role in the development of an expanded national immunisation programme," said Jean Dupraz, Deputy Representative of UNICEF in Viet Nam.

"With the new vaccine, children will only have to receive one shot instead of three to protect them against five diseases. This will reduce costs, time and human resources," said director of the programme Nguyen Tran Hien.

The five-in-one vaccine tested by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has not been available in Viet Nam before. WHO hopes that Viet Nam will plan to expand this programme.

According to Huan, for the last twenty years, the expanded national programme on immunisation has helped millions of children escape deadly diseases.

The representative of World Health Organisation in Viet Nam affirmed that using vaccines against diseases caused by Haemophilus influenza tuysp B (Hib) had become a highly effective method for avoiding infection among communities.

A national monitoring system for Hib has been established at the Central Paediatrics hospital in Ha Noi and HCM City's Children No 1.

Hib is the main cause of deadly diseases including meningitis and pneumonia. According to WHO, in Viet Nam, about 1.9 per cent of under fives are likely to contract these diseases.

Every year 600 meningitis and 100,000 pneumonia cases are caused by Hib. — VNS

From VietnamNews