Vietnamese News Agency (VNA)
January 17, 2008 Thursday
Viet Nam has, over the past 9 years, constantly obtained the World
Health Organisation (WHO) targets of detecting 70 percent of tuberculosis
cases and curing 85 percent of the patients.
The statistics were released at a conference in Ha Noi on January 17 to
review a national project on TB prevention and control and the Global
Fund for TB Prevention. The event was hosted by the National
Anti-Tuberculosis Programme and the Ministry of Public Health.
However, participants at the conference were told that TB infection
rate remains high in Viet Nam , with that among young people at the age of
15-24 being on the rise.
Viet Nam now ranks 13 th among the 22 countries with the highest number
of TB patients in the world.
According to WHO, in 2007, the newly-contracted case rate per 100,000
people was 175 in Viet Nam , with the mortality rate per 100,000 people
being 23.
The national anti-TB programme up to 2011 aims to lower the death,
infection and spread rates in the community, while increasing the
opportunities to access health care services for poor and ethnic
minority people.
Under the programme, a strategy will be mapped out to increase
co-ordination between the public and private health care sectors in the
fight against TB in urban areas in 12 provinces and cities.
According to Dr. Dinh Ngoc Si, head of the anti TB project's steering
board and Director of the National Hospital of Tuberculosis and
Respiratory Diseases, the State will spend 70 billon VND, or 10 percent
increase, on anti-TB programme in 2008.
The programme will continue to receive financial and technical
assistances from governmental and non-governmental organisations as well as
financial resources from the Dutch government and the Global Fund for anti-TB/HIV
prevention programme.
