Hanoi administers more vaccine doses to residents

Hanoi has successfully reduced the prevalence of infectious diseases and is continuing to administer more doses of the virus vaccine to all residents, according to the Hanoi Center for Disease Control (CDC).

The latest move was the city's measles vaccination campaign starting from October 14 with about 70,000 subjects eligible for vaccination, including children aged 1-5 years old and medical staff at risk who have not received enough doses as prescribed. As of October 17, more than 23,000 injections have been carried out.

In October alone, the number of most disease cases saw a decrease compared to the same period last year, the center said. Specifically, in the first nine months of the year, there were 4,160 cases of dengue fever, down 80%. 

Medical staff screen and provide nutritional counseling to students in Hanoi. Photos: VGP

"Malnutrition prevention has achieved the target set by the city's government," the CDC said, adding that the rate of children under 5 years old with stunting malnutrition is 9.8% (down 0.3% year on year); underweight is 6.6% (down 0.2%).

There are currently over 14,860 people living with HIV in the city. Among them, over 13,460 people are maintained on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, or 90.5% of the total.

HIV/AIDS prevention activities such as condom and needle distribution, methadone treatment for opioid addiction, HIV testing counseling, HIV confirmatory testing in medical facilities, and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in public and private medical facilities are ongoing.

Activities to improve the quality of the population have been implemented, including a project to expand screening, diagnosis and treatment of prenatal and neonatal diseases; another to take care of the elderly in the period 2017-2025; one to expand the mobilization of social resources in providing contraceptives and services for family planning, reproductive health as well as activities to develop physical stature of local citizens and another to control gender imbalance at birth.

To reduce the number of cases, Hanoi is stepping up dengue fever prevention measures.

From January to September, nearly 69,500 children were born, down 6.6% year on year. The number of elderly people who received health check-ups was nearly 1.2 million, or about 83%. The total number of people using new contraceptive methods was nearly 435,000, or 107% of the plan.

In terms of food safety and origin, 20 school kitchens were inspected. Of these, 15 schools complied with the standards, with 190/190 samples undergoing rapid testing. The origin of food was traced in 19 food outlets in the Hanoi airport area, of which 12 met the standards after rapid testing of 190 samples.

With the achieved results, in November, the city health sector will continue to take measures to maintain the system of monitoring, detection of infectious diseases and vaccination to prevent epidemics.

Moreover, professional activities will be carried out to ensure food safety. Screening and weighing will be conducted to assess the nutritional status of children under 5 years of age. Counseling people to improve nutritional status and provide proper nutrition in the first 1,000 days of life to prevent malnutrition among mothers and children.