From 01/7/2026, Circular 13/2026/TT-BYT lists 13 diseases for mandatory vaccination in the Expanded Programme on Immunization, adding HPV. The schedule by month of age and how to catch up when doses are late.
The illness goes through 3 phases. The critical phase usually falls on days 4 to 7, just as the fever eases. Warning signs, home…
Answers to common questions about the HPV vaccine: age, number of doses, men, people who are sexually active, screening after…
There are four dengue virus types. Having one type does not give lasting protection against the others, and old antibodies can…
Bexsero, VA-Mengoc-BC, Menactra, MenQuadfi and Nimenrix: which serogroups each one covers, from what age it is given, and how…
Based on Ministry of Health guidance (Decision 3897/QĐ-BYT): who counts as a close contact, when to take the medicine, the three…
Meningococcal disease can kill within 24 hours. How it spreads, its forms, the characteristic purpuric rash, serogroups in…
Adults need vaccines too. The vaccines recommended for adolescents, before having children, during pregnancy, for health…
Which reactions after vaccination are normal, how to manage fever and swelling at home, and which signs mean going to a health…
Qdenga has been licensed in Vietnam since May 2024 for people aged 4 and over. The 2-dose schedule 3 months apart, trial…
One of the most dangerous infectious diseases; prevented from birth with BCG vaccine.
Vietnam has a high prevalence of hepatitis B; the birth dose given within 24 hours is the golden shield.
A highly virulent disease; vaccination is mandatory under Circular 52/2025/TT-BYT.
Vaccinating mothers in the last 3 months of pregnancy passes on antibodies that protect babies in their first months…
A leading bacterial cause of purulent meningitis and pneumonia in young children.
Vietnam eliminated polio in 2000 and keeps this achievement with oral bOPV and injected IPV.
The leading cause of diarrhoea requiring hospital care in children; prevented by an oral vaccine given from 6 weeks of…
Pneumococcal vaccine is being added to the Expanded Programme on Immunization under Resolution 104; there are several…
Neisseria meningitidis is a coffee-bean-shaped Gram-negative diplococcus. There are 13 serogroups, of which 6 (A, B,…
Fact: Hygiene and nutrition helped reduce deaths but did NOT eliminate the germs. Measles, polio and pertussis only fell dramatically after vaccines reached the whole population. For example, when the UK and Japan cut back on pertussis vaccination in the 1970s over fears of side effects, huge pertussis epidemics returned almost immediately, with dozens of deaths.
Source: US CDC & Vietnam Association of Preventive Medicine
Fact: This is a probability paradox. In a population with very high vaccination coverage (for example 98%), vaccinated people vastly outnumber unvaccinated people. No vaccine is 100% effective (most are 85–95%). In a school of 1,000 pupils where 995 are vaccinated and 5 are not, when measles breaks out, 100% (5/5) of the unvaccinated pupils fall ill, while only 2% (20/995) of the vaccinated pupils get a mild illness. There are 20 cases among vaccinated pupils compared with 5 among unvaccinated pupils, but the vaccinated group is far better protected.
Source: 2026 vaccination recommendations
Fact: A newborn's immune system can respond to thousands of antigens at once. Food, air and the bacteria that normally live in the mouth and nose expose a child to hundreds of times more antigens every day than a vaccine does. Combination vaccines, or several vaccines given at the same visit, protect children as early as possible during their highest-risk period without increasing side effects.
Source: WHO & National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology
Fact: Any interruption of a vaccination schedule (except oral typhoid vaccine) does NOT require starting again. The body keeps its "immune memory". You only need to continue with the missing doses at the recommended intervals.
Source: 2026 lifelong vaccination schedule recommendations
The 4-day rule: a dose given 1 to 4 days before the minimum due date is still considered valid. A dose given 5 or more days early does not count and must be repeated once the required interval has passed.
Source: Ministry of Health of Vietnam
Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) is a fulminant infection caused by the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis, including purulent meningitis and sepsis. It is extremely dangerous because it starts suddenly in completely healthy people; the first symptoms look like flu, but it can progress to endotoxic shock and death within 24 hours of the first symptom. The case fatality rate is 10–15%, and 20% of survivors are left with permanent disabilities.
Source: Book: Prevention of meningococcal disease in Vietnam (2024)
Serogroup W (W-135) has the highest case fatality rate (CFR) worldwide, up to 19–21.4% (according to data from Europe and the US CDC), followed by serogroup C (~16%), Y (~8%) and B (~8%). In Vietnam, serogroup B accounts for the majority of cases (>90%), but serogroups W and C have also been recorded causing invasive disease.
Source: Book: Prevention of meningococcal disease in Vietnam (2024)
YES. Meningococci have 12–13 different serogroups (6 main ones: A, B, C, W, X and Y). Immunity after infection with one serogroup does not protect against the others. In addition, natural antibodies tend to wane over time. People who have had the disease therefore still need to be vaccinated for full protection.
Source: US CDC & Vietnam Association of Preventive Medicine
In the Expanded Programme on Immunization:
