According to the Ministry of Health’s General Department of Preventive Medicine, Vietnam adopted a monthly schedule for JE vaccination in the national expanded programme on immunisation in early 2015, replacing the old one in which the vaccine is only given in a specific period of the year based on each locality’s schedule.
It is recommended that the JE vaccination be administered at least three times: the first injection when the child is a year old, the second dose one or two weeks after the first, and the last a year later.
The general department also revealed that many provinces have reported a two-dose vaccination rate of more than 95%, including those in the mountainous areas of Lai Chau, Tuyen Quang, Cao Bang, Yen Bai, Lao Cai and Son La.
Approximately 1.7 million of the children received the third injection after a year. Some 36 out of 63 cities and provinces across the country had a three-dose rate of 95% last year.
Since 1997, the national expanded immunisation programme has included the JE vaccination, focusing mainly on JE-prone districts in 12 cities and provinces. All 63 localities of the country have benefited from the JE immunisation programme since 2014.
