2,000 Pentaxim vaccine doses to be delivered

June 21, 2016 - 18:40

As many as 2,000 additional five-in-one Pentaxim vaccine doses will be made available to children aged under 2 in Hà Nội.

A crow of parents wait for hours to register Pentaxim vaccination for their babies in Hà Nội’s Lương Thế Vinh Street last December. – VNA/VNS Photo Minh Sơn
Viet Nam News

HÀ NỘI — As many as 2,000 additional five-in-one Pentaxim vaccine doses will be made available to children aged under two in Hà Nội.

Children born between June 22, 2014, and April 22, 2016, and have not been vaccinated are eligible to register for the vaccine.

According to the Hà Nội Centre for Preventive Medicine, registration for the vaccine will only be accepted online through the centre’s website at www.ytdhanoi.gov.vn from 9am tomorrow.

Earlier this month, the centre offered 3,500 Pentaxim vaccine doses to children.

The five-in-one Pentaxim vaccine is a combination of five different vaccines that protect infants against five common, potentially fatal, childhood diseases: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough) and hepatitis B, as well as Haemophilus influenza Type B.

As part of the expanded national immunisation programme, free Quinvaxem vaccination is provided to prevent these five diseases.

Parents seem to prefer the paid Pentaxim vaccine instead of the free Quinvaxem vaccine because they are afraid of the latter’s side effects following local reports of infant fatalities after being vaccinated. However, there is hardly any scientific evidence linking the vaccination programme with these deaths.

Over the last few years, Việt Nam has seen parents refusing the free Quinvaxem and delaying vaccinations for their babies, preferring to wait for the Pentaxim vaccine. This reluctance is said to be threatening the babies’ health and public health in general. — VNS

 

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