The vaccine helps protect children against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, hepatitis B, and haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib).
The doses are part of a batch of the vaccine funded by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), which arrived in Hanoi on July 27 to serve the national expanded immunisation programme.
Earlier, 72,300 doses were distributed to 14 northern mountainous provinces, using domestic funding.
Like other countries around the world, routine immunisation services in Vietnam have been disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in approximately 114,000 children under one year old missing vaccinations for diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis, which are used as indicators of global immunisation coverage, in 2022.
Moreover, due to the recent shortage of the 5-in-1 vaccine, an estimated 300,000 Vietnamese children born in the beginning of 2023 have yet to receive this essential vaccine.
WHO Representative in Vietnam Angela Pratt affirmed the organisation will continue to collaborate with UNICEF and other partners to support the Vietnamese Government, ensuring that all children in every corner of the country receive complete and timely immunisations, both now and in the future.
