Applied Epidemiology of Communicable Diseases in Vietnam
Creators: name: Nguyen, Hien
Publisher: name: The Australian National University
Year: 2024

description: This thesis consists of six chapters representing the projects that I engaged in from February 2022 to December 2023 to fulfill the required competencies of the MAE program. During this period, I worked at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) in Hanoi, Vietnam, specifically within the Department of Communicable Disease Control. Chapter 1 - Introduction In this chapter, I provide an overview of my field placement, how I met the MAE requirements, and other extra projects undertaken during my MAE tenure that lie outside the scope of the MAE competencies. Chapter 2 - Analysis of a public health dataset: COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against the Delta variant among SARS-CoV-2 infection-naive hospital staff, patients, and caregivers in a large surgical hospital outbreak in Vietnam, September to October 2021 In this project, I assessed the vaccine effects among infection-naive patients, caregivers, and hospital staff to identify factors associated with SARS-VoV-2 infection in the outbreak that occurred at the Viet Duc University hospital, the largest surgical hospital in the North of Vietnam. My achievements were a manuscript ready for a journal article submission (Manuscript 1) and two oral presentations at the Communicable Disease and Immunisation Conference 2023 (Conference Presentation 1) and the 1st SAFETYNET Conference (Conference Presentation 2). Chapter 3 - Establish or evaluate a surveillance system or other health information system: Evaluation of the hepatitis B surveillance system in Ninh Binh province, Vietnam over the period of 2017-2022 This chapter provides an evaluation of four main attributes of the hepatitis B surveillance system in Ninh Binh province, Vietnam over six years from 2017 to 2022. The output of this project was a manuscript ready for submission to a scientific journal (Manuscript 2). Chapter 4 - Investigation of an acute health problem or threat: Investigation of a sharp increase in mucormycosis cases discovered in a major tertiary referral hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam, 2022 In this project, I described the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID-19-associated mucormycosis (CAM) cases and of mucormycosis unrelated to COVID-19 (non-CAM) cases reported at Bach Mai hospital, the largest general hospital in Northern Vietnam in 2022. Throughout this study, I was able to produce a manuscript suitable for submission to a scientific journal (Manuscript 3). Chapter 5 - Design and conduct an epidemiological study: Exploring parental decision making to vaccinate their children against COVID-19 and associated factors in Thai Nguyen province, Vietnam, 2021-2023 In this study, I administered an online survey targeting parents of school children aged 6 to 17 years living in Thai Nguyen province, Vietnam, to assess acceptance and refusal rates of COVID-19 vaccination for their children, and to identify associated factors with acceptance/refusal. As a result, I produced a manuscript for journal submission (Manuscript 4). Additionally, I conducted a Literature Review on parental decision making to vaccinate their children against COVID-19 in low- and middle-income countries. Chapter 6 - Other MAE Requirements In this section, I outline the completion of supplementary MAE requirements during my fellowship: a Lay Audience Report, the Lesson from the Field, and Teaching Experience.