Parents in the Mekong Delta region were shocked when a local hospital asked them to take full responsibility if anything bad happened to their child after the vaccination for hepatitis B.
Parents are shocked when being asked to take all responsibilities
After giving birth at Mekong Maternity Hospital, parents were asked to sign a registration paper for volunteer infant vaccination which stated that parents agreed to let their children receive Engerrix B and Hepa Big vaccines and will take full responsibility if anything untoward occurs.
A parent said, "The news that four babies died after being vaccinated for hepatitis B makes us very worried. Before the birth day, we had considered not giving the shots to our child. After my wife delivered on July 29, the hospital gave us the registration paper. We feel like we're putting our child in danger while the hospital will be able to go scot-free."
Deputy CEO of Mekong Maternity Hospital Nguyen Van Anh said this procedure has been carried out for a long time now. Though he did not said exactly when, he affirmed that it was before the death of the four babies.
"That paper only proves that parents agreed to let us carry out the immunisation programme. The hospital still takes full responsibility if any side effects appear afterwards." Anh said, "The Ministry of Health neither requires nor bans this practice. However we want our work to be tightly organised."
Meanwhile, many readers have also reported the same situation to DTiNews. Reader Le Thi Thanh Tr. said there was no such procedure when she gave birth in August, 2012.
"When I was discharged we received a small notebook which confirmed that my child was vaccinated against tuberculosis and hepatitis B. Only when my child was going to have a five-in-one vaccination shot, did doctors ask us to sign a paper which confirmed that my child did not have any illness or fever." she wrote.
