Health

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has assessed the risk of a measles outbreak in Vietnam as very high and recommended large-scale vaccination campaigns in provinces and cities with high and very high risk, as well as in areas currently experiencing measles case clusters.

More than 200 health professionals from the University Medical Centre Ho Chi Minh City (UMC) successfully performed organ procurement and transplantation from a brain-dead donor for four recipients on January 25.

Facing the danger of his uncle’s life due to cancer, the nephew donated part of his liver for doctors at Military Hospital 175 to transplant to the patient.

This is the first time Viet Duc Friendship Hospital has achieved 21 organ transplants in a week, marking a new milestone in the Vietnamese medical sector.

The National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion (NIHBT) said that it needs about 50,000 units of blood for emergencies and treatment before and during the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday, calling for more donations from the community.

The Ministry of Health has recommended the public to regularly update official information related to pneumonia caused by the human metapneumovirus (HMPV) to avoid undue panic, but at the same time, take precautions as per the ministry's guidelines.

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health confirmed that Human metapneumovirus (HMPV), recently highlighted in China, was among the causes of respiratory infections in children recorded in the city during 2023 and 2024.

Vietnam has recorded 6,725 cases of measles since the beginning of 2024, a 130-fold increase over 2023, according to the Ministry of Health.

As part of the “Helmets for Kids in Vietnam” initiative, the National Traffic Safety Committee, AIP Foundation, and Johnson & Johnson Vietnam, in collaboration with the Yen Bai Provincial Traffic Safety Board, donated 1,300 United Nations ECE 22 standard helmets to students at Tran Nhat Duat High School (Yen Binh district, Yen Bai province).

Over 29,100 people in the Mekong Delta province of Long An got measles jabs in the two rounds of immunisation campaign from October 16 - 22 at schools and in the community; and from October 27-31 at health stations, topping 72% of the set plan, according to Director of the provincial Department of Health Huynh Minh Phuc.

In Vietnam, social media influence and insufficient sexual education have contributed to an alarming increase in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among adolescents.

From November 1, Bach Mai Hospital officially deployed electronic medical records as a breakthrough step in modernizing the health care process, managing medical records, and improving the quality of medical services of the hospital.

Dozens of children with severe urological birth defects and rare urological conditions in Ho Chi Minh City, Vinh, Hanoi and Da Nang are receiving free genital surgeries under the ‘Thien Nhan & Friends’ programme – a project that offers child genital reconstruction surgeries in Vietnam.

The information was shared by Prof. Dr. Do Doan Loi, Vice President of the Vietnam Cardiovascular Association, former Director of the National Heart Institute at the Workshop introducing the Stroke and Myocardial Infarction Prevention Program organized by Tokyo Medical University Vietnam and Kusumi Hospital on October 27 in Hung Yen.

Hanoi commenced a measles vaccination campaign at health stations in the districts of Long Bien, Phu Xuyen, Phuc Tho, Thuong Tin, Dong Anh, Hoai Duc and Thach That and Son Tay township on October 14.