On March 27, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health said that from the second week of 2025 to now, the number of weekly measles cases in the city is decreasing rapidly in all ages.
As of week 12 of 2025, 50 wards and communes in 13 districts, towns and Thu Duc City have not recorded new measles cases for 3 consecutive weeks or more.
The Department of Health has carried out a dossier appraisal process and reported to the City People's Committee to announce the end of the measles epidemic in 22 qualified wards and communes in Districts 1, 4 and Cu Chi district (no new cases have been recorded after 21 consecutive days and all epidemic prevention measures have been fully implemented according to regulations).
After announcing the end of the epidemic, the city will continue to maintain monitoring activities, early detection of suspected cases in the community and schools to promptly handle and prevent the risk of a new outbreak.
Vaccination work is still being implemented to ensure that children of vaccination age are vaccinated with 2 doses of measles vaccine, at the same time, organize compensatory vaccination for children who have not been fully vaccinated; communication work is being promoted to raise people's awareness of the benefits of vaccination, encourage parents to vaccinate their children on schedule, maintain hygiene and disease prevention measures.
The city's health sector recommends that people should not be subjective or negligent in preventing measles. To effectively prevent the measles epidemic, people need to proactively get their children fully vaccinated according to the expanded immunization schedule, wash their hands regularly with water, soap, cover their mouths and nose when coughing, sneezing, eat well, improve physical fitness, and maintain hygiene in the living environment.
On May 23, 2024, the first measles cases were detected soon after more than 2 years of no cases recorded in the city.
In parallel with monitoring the emergence and circulation of the measles virus, the Department of Health has directed HCDC to coordinate with Children's Hospital 1 and the University of Oxford Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) to exploit samples stored at the serum bank to assess community immunity.
The results show that the rate of children aged 9 months to under 5 years old with measles antibodies is only 86%, while to be able to protect the community against measles, the immunity rate needs to reach over 95%.
Using a measles risk assessment tool, the results show that Ho Chi Minh City is at very high risk of measles outbreak.
On August 27, 2024, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee issued a decision to announce the measles epidemic throughout the city.
On August 31, 2024, after the decision to announce the epidemic was issued, a measles vaccination campaign for children aged 1 to 10 years was deployed throughout the city.
On the morning of September 7, 2024, the city officially launched a vaccination campaign at schools.
On November 12, 2024, Ho Chi Minh City began implementing measles vaccination for children aged 6 to under 9 months after receiving approval from the Ministry of Health.
In addition to epidemic prevention activities in the community, care and treatment activities are also closely directed.
Since the beginning of the epidemic, Ho Chi Minh City hospitals have received 8,087 measles cases from districts of the city; 12,226 measles cases from other provinces.
Since the beginning of September 2024, the Department of Health has held an expert meeting to agree on the regulation of Immunoglobulin (IVIG) in the treatment of measles for each patient, and to provide steps for approaching and prescribing IVIG.
Efforts in treatment have contributed to controlling the number of severe cases and deaths from measles.
Of the total 8,087 cases in the city, 151 cases need respiratory support, accounting for 1.6%; the number of deaths is 7 cases, accounting for 1/1000 cases, including children with congenital or underlying diseases who have not been vaccinated before.
