Since September 20, the VNVC Vaccination System has administered and received pre-orders for nearly 15,000 doses of dengue vaccine.
The dengue vaccine has been shown to be highly protective, with efficacy against infection against all four dengue serotypes reaching 80.2% at 12 months after the second dose. The vaccine is also highly effective in preventing dengue hospitalizations, with a reduction of up to 90.4% 18 months after the second dose.
Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, former Minister of Health, said that dengue fever not only causes burden and pressure on patients and their families but also on the health system and human resources.
Vietnam has approved the dengue vaccine along with 39 countries around the world, taking another important step in disease prevention. Using the vaccine along with other preventive measures will reduce the number of cases, hospitalizations and serious complications caused by the disease in the near future. This is the most convincing evidence of the safety, effectiveness and great humanity of vaccines in general and dengue vaccines in particular.
The dengue fever epidemic is expected to develop strongly in the last months of the year. In Hanoi, the capital's health sector said that the peak period of the annual dengue fever epidemic in Hanoi (from September to November) has begun with complex and unpredictable weather conditions, combined with heavy rain, creating favorable conditions for mosquitoes to transmit dengue fever. Worryingly, monitoring results at some outbreaks still recorded insect indexes that exceeded the risk threshold, predicting that the number of cases will continue to increase in the city in the coming time.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, from the beginning of the year to mid-September 2024, the country recorded nearly 60,000 cases of dengue fever, including 6 deaths. Dengue fever is difficult to control the source of infection because people with dengue fever may not show symptoms or have unclear symptoms. In addition, severe illness is difficult to predict and can develop without warning signs.
Dengue fever is a major public health concern but there is currently no specific treatment. The introduction of the dengue vaccine is an important step forward in the prevention and control of this dangerous disease in Vietnam.
