The Vietnamese Government will continue
to strongly support anti-tuberculosis activities undertaken in Vietnam
by the Global Stop Tuberculosis Partnership, a
Government leader affirmed.
The Global Stop Tuberculosis Partnership's Coordinating Board
convened its 18th meeting in Hanoi on May 4, drawing the
attendance of its Chair Prof. Rifat Atun, Vietnamese Health
Minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu, a broad spectrum of representatives of local
and international organisations concerned.
Addressing the event, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan also
called on the Global Stop Tuberculosis Partnership and the international community to provide
more support for the fight against TB in Vietnam , which, as
according to the World Health Organisation, ranks 12th among 20
countries heavily burdened by TB in the world.
He hailed the inception of the Global Stop Tuberculosis Partnership
and its enthusiastic activities as meeting an urgent need of preventing
the dangerous disease, helping the people enjoy a fairness in gaining
access to healthcare services, and promoting the share of trans-national
responsibilities in controlling the disease worldwide.
Nhan highlighted that the anti-TB activities the Global Stop Tuberculosis Partnership have deployed are highly oriented to the
community, regardless of social status and eco-political mechanisms of
the participants, in the fight.
These activities have created a driving force to promote the adoption of
new initiatives, mechanisms and technologies to combat TB, and also
spurred sustainable socio-economic development to achieve millennium
development goals.
About 150,000 new TB cases are detected annually in Vietnam . Of the
figure, 12,000 cases are found to have infected with both TB and HIV
virus and nearly 70 percent are tested positive for AFB, mainly in
females and in southern provinces.
An epidemiological study showed that the TB prevalence in Vietnam
continues to rise, especially among the youngsters, partly due to
inadequate monitoring work.
Besides, the increasing number of multi-drug resistant TB imposes a
great challenge to the country’s fight against tuberculosis./.