AlaskaDenise
In Memoriam
<TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD class=news_date vAlign=top align=left height=20>15:18' 06/03/2008 (GMT+7) </TD></TR><TR><TD class=text vAlign=top align=left>
VietNamNet Bridge ? Central Hygiene and Epidemiology Institute director Nguyen Tran Hien discusses Vietnam?s shortage of qualified preventative medicine personnel with Tin Tuc (the News) newspaper.
The number of preventive medicine personnel meets only about 60% of the demand. How does it affect their work?
There is no doubt that it affects our work. When diseases break out, we always face difficulties with deadlines and accuracy with research and prevention because we lack staff.
But recruitment is not easy. Our limited budget does not allow us to attract more people. The workload is heavy and dangerous and the compensation not very high. Many of our staff have quit to work for non-government organisations.
The outbreak of disease and a series of incidents with vaccinations have made people think that you lack both staff quality and quantity. Is that true?
I can?t deny it in terms of skill. But disease prevention depends not only on health workers but also on local authorities and citizens.
We have had to face the unexpected detrimental side effects of vaccinations; bird-flu virus infections and diarrhoea. The reoccurrence of bird flu was the result of poor vigilance by both farmers and the people who supervise them.
What responsibility does health workers have for last year?s deaths following vaccinations?
The Health Ministry agreed that we should try to show, with scientific proof, the reason for the deaths.
We have to find proof that will show if the vaccines were in fact the major cause of death to do so and the outcome will depend largely on the figures and information collected as evidence during the investigation.
We will have to make the results public as quickly as possible because it?s not only parents but also our staff who are anxious about vaccinations.
Many are now afraid to vaccinate children.
The World Health Organisation took the suspect vaccine to France for analyse last year but could find no fault with it.
Our initial conclusion is that the deaths were a coincidence.
For example, the death of a child in HCM City last year was caused by a heart problem rather than the vaccine.
Deaths in Hanoi, Hoa Binh and Ha Tay are still being investigated.
But the Health Ministry?s nation-wide ban on the use of the hepatitis B vaccine is not a final solution. We have yet to find evidence that proves the vaccine is faulty.
We set out a detailed regime for vaccinations and provided it to all local health centres to ensure proper supervision after the deaths.
The Vaccine Safety Advisory Committee has submitted draft regulations to ensure vaccine safety to the Health Ministry and we are awaiting their approval.
This is the process that our workers must follow and which provides them legal protection
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/social/2008/03/772104/
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>The number of preventive medicine personnel meets only about 60% of the demand. How does it affect their work?
There is no doubt that it affects our work. When diseases break out, we always face difficulties with deadlines and accuracy with research and prevention because we lack staff.
But recruitment is not easy. Our limited budget does not allow us to attract more people. The workload is heavy and dangerous and the compensation not very high. Many of our staff have quit to work for non-government organisations.
The outbreak of disease and a series of incidents with vaccinations have made people think that you lack both staff quality and quantity. Is that true?
I can?t deny it in terms of skill. But disease prevention depends not only on health workers but also on local authorities and citizens.
We have had to face the unexpected detrimental side effects of vaccinations; bird-flu virus infections and diarrhoea. The reoccurrence of bird flu was the result of poor vigilance by both farmers and the people who supervise them.
What responsibility does health workers have for last year?s deaths following vaccinations?
The Health Ministry agreed that we should try to show, with scientific proof, the reason for the deaths.
We have to find proof that will show if the vaccines were in fact the major cause of death to do so and the outcome will depend largely on the figures and information collected as evidence during the investigation.
We will have to make the results public as quickly as possible because it?s not only parents but also our staff who are anxious about vaccinations.
Many are now afraid to vaccinate children.
The World Health Organisation took the suspect vaccine to France for analyse last year but could find no fault with it.
Our initial conclusion is that the deaths were a coincidence.
For example, the death of a child in HCM City last year was caused by a heart problem rather than the vaccine.
Deaths in Hanoi, Hoa Binh and Ha Tay are still being investigated.
But the Health Ministry?s nation-wide ban on the use of the hepatitis B vaccine is not a final solution. We have yet to find evidence that proves the vaccine is faulty.
We set out a detailed regime for vaccinations and provided it to all local health centres to ensure proper supervision after the deaths.
The Vaccine Safety Advisory Committee has submitted draft regulations to ensure vaccine safety to the Health Ministry and we are awaiting their approval.
This is the process that our workers must follow and which provides them legal protection
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/social/2008/03/772104/