Health Deputy Minister Dr Cao Minh Quang said the ministry had asked the Vietnam Drug Administration to test samples from the batches of hepatitis-B vaccine as well as the combined diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus (DPT) vaccine given to the two children.

The ministry also urged the administration, the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemic (NIHE) and the National Expanded Programme for Immunisation (EPI) to work out plans to ensure the supply of hepatitis-B vaccine meets demand.

The ministry also asked the Vaccine and Medial Bio-technology Product Verification Institute to complete the verification of Berna Biotech Company’s Hepatitis-B vaccine batches as soon as possible to bring the total of over 2.1 million doses into use, Mr. Quang said.

The Preventive Medicine and Environment Department will ask the World Health Organisation office in Hanoi and South Korea’s LG Company to help investigate the cause of two deaths.

The ministry will also issue procedures to cope with such incidents and apply them across the country, Mr. Quang said.

Two-and-a-half-month-old Ho Phuong Vy died in Thua Thien-Hue Province last Friday after being given a dose of the hepatitis-B vaccine, an LG Company’s Gre-Cross semi-product made by the NIHE’s Vaccine and Bio-technology Product Company. The infants also received a combined DPT vaccine made by the Nha Trang Pasteur Institute.

Earlier this month, 45-day-old Nguyen Ngoc Minh died in Hanoi six hours after being injected with a dose of another hepatitis-B vaccine produced by LG Company.