HCM City (VNA) – Developing grassroots healthcareto prevent non-infectious diseases is the top task of the health-populationtarget programme for 2016-2020, according to Health Minister Nguyen Thi KimTien.
She made the instruction at a conference in Ho Chi Minh Cityon April 16 to review the three-year implementation of the target programme.
It was affirmed at the conference that under the programme,a wide-spread network of health care facilities has been built, contributing tothe control of newly emerging diseases, the prevention of big epidemics, and thereduction in patient numbers and fatalities.
Thanks to the programme, the country has maintained avaccination rate of more than 95 percent for children under one year old andpregnant women. The malnutrition rate among children dropped to 13 percent in2018 from 17.5 percent in 2010. The rate of HIV/AIDs in the community has been keptat 0.3 percent with fewer number of new infection cases.
However, Minister Tien pointed to the increasing threat ofnon-infectious diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer asa new challenge for the programme.
At the same time, financial resources for the programme,which rely on the State budget, are limited. The health insurance fundcurrently pays for only medical examination and treatment, and localadministrations have not paid proper attention to the programme.
The Health Minister stressed that the grassroots healthcarenetwork serves as the “guard” in disease prevention, for both infectious andnon-infectious diseases, and at the same time make it easier for people toaccess medical services.
In the next two years, the Health Ministry will continue tocarry out the programme, paying attention to training and inspection ofprofessional activities at grassroots health facilities, and communicationcampaigns to spread the message among the community on the risks of diseases andraise the public awareness about the need to exercise and early detect chronicdiseases.-VNA