The Ministry of Health plans to replace the five-in-one Quinvaxem combination vaccine with other types of vaccines for infants beginning this June.– Photo giadinhmoi.vn

HÀ NỘI – The Ministry of Health plans to replace the five-in-one Quinvaxem combination vaccine with other types of vaccines for infants beginning this June.

Director of the Ministry’s Preventive Medicine Department Trần Đắc Phu said that the National Expanded Programme on Immunisation had used Quinvaxem to prevent five common, potentially fatal childhood diseases—diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B, and haemophilus influenza type B—among infants for seven years.

But the vaccine producer Berna Boitech Korea Corporation had been phasing out production of the vaccine. The remaining stock of the vaccine was expected to be completely consumed by the end of May.

Thus, the ministry planned to replace Quinvaxem with another five-in-one vaccine, which would be put into use on a small scale in four localities and across the country by the end of the year.

Quinvaxem is a World Health Organisation-prequalified drug and has been distributed in Việt Nam by Berna Biotech Korea Corporation since 2010 under the GAVI-sponsored national immunization program.

Phu also said that the measles-rubella combination vaccine, which is produced in Việt Nam, would be put into use in the National Expanded Programme on Immunisation for children under 18 months old starting next month.

In March 2016, the vaccine was clinically tested and proven safe and effective by Việt Nam with the support of the Japanese government and health experts.

From 2014-16, Việt Nam successfully implemented a campaign to promote the measles-rubella combined vaccination, which has protected more than 23 million children under 19 years old from the disease.

In 2017, the number of infected patients reached the lowest figure in the past ten years.– VNS