HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria are among Vietnam’s great concerns, the Health Ministry has said at the 7th bi-regional symposium of the Training Programmes in Epidemiology and Public Health Interventions Network (TEPHINET).

At the event, which opened in the central city of Da Nang on November 12, the ministry reported that the country is coping with the fast emergence of transmitted and non-transmitted diseases and climate change impacts on public health.

A nation can attain high and sustainable development only when its citizens’ health is well cared for. This fact forces the Governments and social organisations to pay more attention to public health, participants said.

The conference for Asia Pacific and Southeast Asian regions, themed “Advancing Public Health for Country Development”, was organised by the Health Ministry’s General Department of Preventive Medicine.

It saw the attendance of 350 experts from 20 regional countries and territories, and international organisations.

The three-day event is set to hear 178 reports on public and preventive medicine, epidemic prevention, and see a plenary session together with five workshops.

At the opening session, participants agreed that the world is facing a number of dangerous diseases affecting the socio-economic situation and public health such as HIV/AIDS, SARS, influenza type A strains H5N1, H1N1 and H7N9, and foot-and-mouth disease, apart from non-transmitted diseases.

Founded in 1997, TEPHINET aims to improve the capacity of public medicine in the world through epidemiology training programmes and sharing experiences and technology achievements in preventive medicine.

Vietnam became a member of the network in 2010.-VNA