A cooperation agreement was signed on August 21 in Hà Nội between Sanofi-Aventis Vietnam, the Việt Nam National Children's Hospital and the Việt Nam Pediatric Association to strengthen cooperation towards the goal of protecting the population's health, especially children, through preventive immunization and treatment of rare diseases.

Accordingly, the three sides will continue to deploy programmes widely and effectively on raising public awareness, updating professional knowledge on vaccines and vaccinations, and training and improving the capacity of healthcare workers in the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of rare diseases.

They will also implement programmes to develop the practice of expanding vaccine coverage to children, focusing on groups of vulnerable children such as pre-term infants and children with underlying diseases.

“This cooperation is expected to open up many opportunities and meaningful projects for the health of Vietnamese children,” Trần Minh Điển, director of the Việt Nam National Children's Hospital, said.

He said the hospital and Sanofi have been working together for more than 20 years regarding child healthcare.

There are more than 50 patients with rare diseases currently being supported in diagnosis and treatment by the company, he said.

In disease prevention, the two sides have accompanied many activities to update the knowledge and skills of healthcare workers on vaccinations.

Emin Turan, Country Lead of Sanofi Vietnam, said all the physical, mental, and financial burdens that illness brings is something no one wants.

That pain is even multiplied many times if the sufferers are small children.

“As one of the leading companies in rare disease treatment solutions and vaccines to prevent dangerous infectious diseases, we want to be able to join hands to protect the health of children around the world,” he said.

Many specific cooperation activities are and will soon be implemented by the parties to bring many positive values in the future. — VNS