COVID-19 vaccine production research (Photo: VNA) Vietnam has continuously implemented andperfected the national immunisation system to prevent dangerous epidemics. Statisticsof the Ministry of Health show that there are currently about 30 infectiousdiseases that can be prevented with vaccines.
More than 60 years ago, in the context ofdifficulties posed by the war, Vietnam began producing the first vaccine - anoral polio vaccine, as at that time the country recorded a high infection rateof this disease.
Since 1990, the rate of under-one children receivingthree doses of polio vaccine had been maintained at over 90% and this was thepremise for the country to eradicate this disease in 2000.
Following the polio vaccine, Vietnamdeveloped an oral cholera vaccine, from technology transferred by Sweden. In2000-2001, Vietnam continued to transfer this technology for free to a vaccineinstitute in the Republic of Korea (RoK), and an Indian company then has hadthe copyright to produce this vaccine for export around the world.
After that, Vietnam gradually proactivelyproduced many types of vaccines such as Hepatitis B vaccine from human plasma,Japanese encephalitis vaccine, and diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus vaccine. In2005, Vietnam produced and exported the first 1 million doses of Japaneseencephalitis vaccine to India and now the Vietnamese vaccine has been shipped toother countries such as Timor-Leste, the RoK and Myanmar.
Since 2015, Vietnam has been one of nearly40 countries to receive the National Vaccine Authority (NRA) Certificate fromthe World Health Organisation (WHO) recognising its eligibility to exportvaccines to the world.
Just one year later, Vietnam marked an important milestone on theworld vaccine map when it produced its own high-quality combinedmeasles-rubella (MR) vaccine using Japanese technology. At this time, Vietnamwas one of 25 countries in the world and the fourth in Asia that can produce theMR vaccine after Japan, India and China. Since April 2018, this vaccine hasbeen used on a national scale for children from 18 months old in the expanded immunisationprogramme.
The year 2018 marked the next majorachievement of Vietnam's health sector when successfully producing a 3-in-1seasonal flu vaccine (A/H1N1/09, A/H3N2 and B) and pre-pandemic influenza A/H5N1vaccine.
One of the outstanding achievements of thesector in 2023 was that the Centre for Research and Production of Vaccines andBiologicals (Polyvac) under the Ministry of Health successfully exported 1million doses of measles vaccine MVVac to India. Previously, the production technologyof this vaccine was transferred from Japan and it has been put into use in thenational expanded immunisation programme in Vietnam since 2009.
In February 2024, Vietnam had a newgeneration vaccine to prevent meningitis caused by Neisseria meningitidis B.
In addition, Vietnam has also participated in the production and export of vaccinesfor animals. In 2022, it was the first country to successfully researchand produce a vaccine to prevent African swine fever. In 2023, it officiallyexported the African swine fever vaccine AVAC ASF LIVE to five countries, nameyIndonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar and India.
According to Ministry of Health Dao Hong Lan, Vietnam has made the best use ofadvanced technology to produce vaccines to prevent human diseases, ensuring theproduction of 11 out of 12 types of vaccines to serve the national expanded immunisationprogramme.
In a speech at the 2023 National ScientificConference on medical research and application organised by the Vietnam GeneralMedical Association on October 12, 2023, Lan stressed that outstanding studies on vaccineproduction and testing have made Vietnam a strong country in vaccineproduction.
Vietnam eliminated neonatal tetanus in 2005and is moving toward the goals of eliminating measles and reducing the rate ofhepatitis B infection in children under 5 years old to 1% in the near future./.
VNA
