Within-household SARS-CoV-2 transmission and vaccine effectiveness in the first three COVID-19 school outbreaks in northern Viet Nam, September-December 2021.

Objective: The risk of transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) from schoolchildren to their household and the protective effects of vaccination in these settings remain poorly understood. We assessed the transmission dynamics of schoolchildren with SARS-CoV-2 within their households and the protective effects of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination among household members in Viet Nam.

Methods: We estimated the attack rate, vaccine effectiveness and adjusted risk ratio (aRR) of factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 transmission to household contacts of children confirmed to have COVID-19 who attended three schools in Ha Nam, Phu Tho and Thanh Hoa provinces between September and December 2021 using multivariable regression with household-level random effects.

Factors Influencing Community Event-based Surveillance: Lessons Learned from Pilot Implementation in Vietnam.

Community event-based surveillance aims to enhance the early detection of emerging public health threats and thus build health security. The Ministry of Health of Vietnam launched a community event-based surveillance pilot program in 6 provinces to improve the early warning functions of the existing surveillance system. An evaluation of the pilot program took place in 2017 and 2018.

Event-Based Surveillance at Community and Healthcare Facilities, Vietnam, 2016-2017.

Surveillance and outbreak reporting systems in Vietnam required improvements to function effectively as early warning and response systems. Accordingly, the Ministry of Health of Vietnam, in collaboration with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, launched a pilot project in 2016 focusing on community and hospital event-based surveillance. The pilot was implemented in 4 of Vietnam's 63 provinces.

Expanding severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) surveillance beyond influenza: The process and data from 1 year of implementation in Vietnam.

Background: In 2016, as a component of the Global Health Security Agenda, the Vietnam Ministry of Health expanded its existing influenza sentinel surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) to include testing for 7 additional viral respiratory pathogens. This article describes the steps taken to implement expanded SARI surveillance in Vietnam and reports data from 1 year of expanded surveillance.

Methods: The process of expanding the suite of pathogens for routine testing by real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) included laboratory trainings, procurement/distribution of reagents, and strengthening and aligning SARI surveillance epidemiology practices at sentinel sites and regional institutes (RI).