Details for Review of Expanded Program of Immunization Vietnam 2009

In order to identify progress achieved in Vietnam’s national Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) since its evaluation in 2003, a comprehensive review of EPI was conducted 30 March to 10 April 2009. The key objectives of the 2009 EPI review were to assess the following:

• Status of management practices, including the EPI reporting system, disease surveillance, training and supervision, and provision of EPI services through hospitals and the private sector.
• Status of the implementation of safe injection and surveillance of AEFI, performance of the cold chain system and management of vaccines in the EPI

An immunization coverage survey was conducted in the same six provinces as the EPI review during the period 6-17 April 2009, and the complete findings are summarized in a separate report. Overall, the immunization coverage survey demonstrated very high levels of coverage for all vaccines except the Hepatitis B birth dose within 24 hours of birth, with slight delays in fully immunizing children by twelve months of age.