A baby receives vaccine in HCM City. The HCM City Preventive Health Centre yesterday told health officials in districts to ensure the provision of the fourth shot of the combined vaccine against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus (DPT) to children aged 18 to 48 months. — Photo bnews.vn

HCM CITY — The HCM City Preventive Health Centre yesterday told health officials in districts to ensure the provision of the fourth shot of the combined vaccine against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus (DPT) to children aged 18 to 48 months.

Only 12,889 out of 108,679 children had received the DPT vaccine as of September 30.

District 4 had the highest rate of DPT vaccinated children in the city, with 54 per cent.

Dr Lê Hồng Nga, the centre’s general planning division, spoke at a monthly meeting on disease prevention with the city’s Department of Health held yesterday.

The districts of Bình Thạnh, 7, Cần Giờ and Tân Phú had the lowest rate, under 10 per cent, she said.

Health officials in many districts such as Tân Phú District put posters on walls of apartment buildings, kindergartens and schools, calling on parents to review the vaccination schedule of their children as well as the provision of the fourth shot.

The city has not yet recorded any new incidence of diphtheria this year, Nga said.

Nga said that all district-level health officials must co-operate with managers of schools and family-based sewing establishments, where dengue fever has broken out.

Many of the workers, along with migrants who rent rooms, live in the building where the sewing workshop is located.

She said the workshops should be sprayed more carefully to control mosquitoes and that measures should be taken at schools to prevent the spread of hand, foot and mouth (HFM) disease.

In September, an outbreak of HFM occurred at three kindergartens in districts 5 and Hóc Môn, with 25 children contracting the disease.

According to hospital reports, the number of patients aged 10 to 19 with dengue fever since July has increased. Students and young workers are at the highest risk of contracting dengue fever, she explained.

The city had 12,996 new incidences of the disease in the first nine months of the year, an increase of 27 per cent compared to the same period last year.

The centre reported 3,917 new incidences of hand, foot, and mouth disease in the first nine months, a decrease of 32 per cent compared to the same period last year. However, the disease saw an upward trend last month. — VNS