Vietnam will aim to halve the number of tuberculosis (TB) patients
by 2015 towards a goal of eliminating the disease in 2030.
This is an overall objective of Vietnam ’s tuberculosis prevention
programme in the 2011-2015 period with vision towards 2030 announced at a
seminar jointly held by the Central Lung Hospital (CLH), the Vietnam
Tuberculosis Prevention Programme and the World Health Organisation
(WHO) in Ho Chi Minh City on Nov. 22.
According to CLH Director Dinh Ngoc Sy, there remain difficulties and
challenges in realising set targets in this field, including the
shortage of officers in charge of TB prevention due to high infection
risks and low incomes, and the uncontrolled management of anti-TB
medicines in the market.
Nearly half of officers
dealing with this job are untrained and people traditionally treat the
disease by themselves, he said.
Sy emphasised the
need to include TB prevention in the list of priorities of social
development plans, strengthen the detection and management of patients
and pour more cash into personnel training and building high-quality TB
prevention establishments.
Vietnam is one of
the countries suffering enormous TB burdens with 180,000 new cases and
32,000 fatalities due to the disease each year./.
.jpg)