The event aimed to honour outstanding individuals while reaffirming the importance of vaccination in protecting individual and community health. A range of information related to immunisation was also shared during the programme.
Duong Chi Nam, Deputy Director of the Department of Disease Prevention under the Ministry of Health, said that, following an assessment of effectiveness, the Ministry of Health would report to the Government for consideration of nationwide expansion.
By 2030, the Expanded Programme on Immunisation is expected to include three additional vaccines. Specifically, in 2026, pilot implementation will begin for the pneumococcal vaccine and the HPV vaccine. By 2030, the influenza vaccine is also scheduled to be added.
According to the plan, the pneumococcal vaccine will be rolled out from the first quarter of 2026, while the cervical cancer vaccine (HPV) is expected to begin in the third or fourth quarter of 2026. As the HPV vaccine is imported, additional time is required to complete bidding, importation, and quality inspection procedures.
Accordingly, from 2026 to 2028, specialised institutes have selected four provinces — Tuyen Quang, Quang Ngai, Dak Lak and Vinh Long — to pilot the provision of free HPV vaccination for 11-year-old girls.
At current market prices, the pneumococcal vaccine costs between 1 million VND and 2 million VND per dose, while the HPV vaccine ranges from nearly 1 million VND to 3 million VND per dose. Incorporating these two vaccines into the free immunisation programme will enable many children to access costly vaccines, thereby contributing to disease prevention at the community level.
The “Online Multiple-Choice Quiz on the Expanded Programme on Immunisation in Viet Nam” was launched from November 14 to December 10, 2025 as a key communication initiative to widely inform people nationwide about the benefits of vaccination, while countering misinformation about vaccines.
After just over one month of implementation, the competition recorded impressive figures, with 16,276 valid entries from Vietnamese citizens across the country.
The Organising Committee selected 19 deserving prize winners. In the final round, the top 100 contestants all achieved perfect scores of 20 out of 20, completing the quiz at remarkable speed, in just 18 to 24 seconds.
A total of 19 outstanding contestants from localities nationwide were honoured at the competition.
Duong Chi Nam expressed his hope that each participant would become an active communicator, working alongside the health sector to spread the message that “Immunisation is both a right and a responsibility” to every household and every citizen.
