According to the Department of Preventive Medicine (Ministry of Health), the inclusion of dengue fever vaccine in the expanded immunization program must be implemented in accordance with the Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, which is to add the list of infectious diseases with vaccines to the expanded immunization program, ensuring free vaccination for people.
To include in expanded immunization, it is necessary to assess disease burden, safety, and immune efficacy, while also considering community acceptance and evaluating the economic efficiency of dengue fever vaccines.
The dengue fever vaccine is put into use to reduce the number of cases and limit severe cases requiring hospitalization or death due to dengue fever, contributing to the common goal of protecting, caring for and improving people's health.
The Ministry of Health is coordinating with units to evaluate and research the above factors and then submit them to the Government. If appropriate, they will be included in the expanded vaccination program for free vaccination for the people.
Before introducing the free vaccination program for people, the Ministry of Health will have a plan to test it in the community for about 2 years.
Currently, in Vietnam, the Qdenga vaccine against dengue fever, which is on the list of vaccines licensed for circulation under Decision 308/QD-QLD dated May 14, 2024 of the Drug Administration of Vietnam, is being injected as a service. The dengue vaccine is currently being injected as a service at a price of 2.7 million VND/dose, with 2 injections 3 months apart.
According to the Department of Preventive Medicine, since the beginning of the year, the country has recorded about 80,000 cases of dengue fever, including 12 deaths. Vietnam has all four types of dengue virus circulating, but the main circulating virus types are DENV-1 and DENV-2. DENV-2 is often associated with severe cases of dengue fever and epidemics, and is also the major cause of deaths related to dengue fever.
