Vietnam is the first nation in Asia to have reached the target set
by the World Health Organisation (WHO), to help more than 85 percent of
patients fully recover from tuberculosis (TB) and provide treatment to
over 70 percent of diagnosed cases.
The figures were
announced at a ceremony to mark the Central Lung Hospital’s 55 th
anniversary in Hanoi on June 24.
On addressing
the event, Deputy Minister for Public Health Nguyen Thi Xuyen underlined
the leading role the hospital plays in the control and prevention of TB
and lung disease.
The Deputy Minister said she hopes
the hospital will continue cooperating internationally to raise support
for the nation’s TB control and prevention programme and apply the
latest science and technologies to diagnosis and treatment.
Since it was first founded in 1957, the hospital has successfully
developed methods of controlling and preventing TB from communal to
central levels and has found practical ways of combating TB that are
applicable in Vietnam.
The hospital uses 16 out of 19 WHO certified technologies to diagnose TB.
To mark the occasion, the hospital was awarded the ‘Labour Hero’ title.-VNA