From Xinhua
HANOI — Vietnam has reported 142 deaths caused by measles so far in 2014, 57 percent of which are in capital Hanoi, said a report by the Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kiem Tien on Thursday.
This picture taken on April 17, 2014 shows a young boy suffering from measles being held by his grandmother at a state-run hospital in Hanoi. Vietnam is battling a deadly outbreak of measles, which has killed more than 100 people — mostly young children — and infected thounsands more this year, according to official figures released on April 18, 2014. (Photo: STR/AFP/Getty Images)
Local Thanh Nien (Young People) online newspaper quoted Tien’s report to Vietnam’s National Assembly deputies on management responsibility of healthcare sector regarding measles epidemic as saying that the number of dead cases by measles in Vietnam is now falling sharply compared to the peak of the disease in early March and April.
In addition to objective reasons, the report attributed the high number of measles-deaths to overloading of Vietnam’s National Hospital of Pediatrics where 87.3 percent of the death toll was reported, ill-handling of cross-contamination in hospital, as well as low coverage of measles vaccination in several localities.
In a related movement, Vietnam’s Ministry of Health (MoH) was quoted by state-run radio VOV as saying on Thursday that as of May 27, 2014, the coverage proportion of measles vaccination across the country reached 96.1 percent.
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