Dong Nai: Continuing efforts to ensure safe and effective vaccination operations

On March 19, a joint delegation from the Department of Disease Prevention under Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization led by Ann Josephine Burton, senior researcher at the Australian National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, worked with the Dong Nai Department of Health and the Dong Nai Provincial Center for Disease Control to evaluate the vaccination system in Dong Nai.

Ann Josephine Burton, Head of the joint delegation from the Department of Disease Prevention under the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization, speaks at the meeting. Photo: Nhu Thuan

From March 16 to 18, the delegation conducted field visits to several healthcare facilities and public and private vaccination centers across the province. The working group commended the efforts of units from the provincial to the grassroots levels in implementing the Expanded Programme on Immunization. These units have proactively developed vaccination plans, ensured vaccine supply, maintained vaccine storage and the cold chain, and monitored vaccination activities.

The working group noted that after the implementation of the two-tier local government model, there were no major obstacles to local vaccination work. Only some difficulties remained in surveying those eligible for vaccination because Dong Nai has a large area, a dense population, high population mobility, and many ethnic minority communities with unstable residences.

Ann Josephine Burton noted that commune health stations still lack leadership positions. She therefore urged leaders at all levels to promptly assign appropriate and sufficient personnel so that commune health stations can stabilize their organizational structures, operate effectively, and fulfill their professional duties, including expanded immunization. In addition, training courses should be organized to update grassroots population collaborators on vaccination information.

The Provincial Center for Disease Prevention regularly supervises vaccine administration activities at commune health stations, but this should be done even more frequently. At the same time, training courses should be organized to strengthen the vaccination capacity of commune health stations in vaccine management and storage procedures, as well as the handling of post-vaccination incidents, so that vaccination activities in the area become increasingly effective.

Luu Van Dung, Deputy Director of the Department of Health, received the working group's feedback and said that the Department of Health is assigning personnel to commune health stations. At the same time, the Department of Health will continue to direct the Provincial Center for Disease Prevention to organize vaccination training courses for commune health stations to ensure vaccination safety and raise vaccine coverage across the province.

By Hanh Dung-Translated by Mai Nga, Minho