Residents in Ea Yong Commune in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak's Krong Pak District receive free health check-ups(Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - On February 27, 1955, latePresident Ho Chi Minh sent a letter to a conference of health care workersacross the country. The 368-word letter asked for three things: to stayhonest and united, love patients, and devoted to developing the country’shealthcare sector. Since then February 27 has been knownas Vietnamese Doctors’ Day.
Over the past 65 years, Vietnam’s health sector has striven to fulfill thetask of protecting people and made increasingly active contributions tothe development of global medicine.
Vietnam has gained a significant reputation worldwide as a bright spot forthe implementation of UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The networkof preventive medicine, medical examination and treatment facilities,manufacture and supply of pharmaceuticals, medical insurance, and professionalcapacity of medical staff have all developed.
Brilliant achievements
Since the country's reunification on April 30, 1975, the healthsector has made great strides and important achievements in the care andprotection of people's health.
Regarding the fulfilment of the MDGs, Vietnam has been able to eradicatepolio, and control neonatal tetanus, pertussis and diphtheria. Vietnam hasmaintained an immunisation rate of more than 95 percent for children under one,pregnant women and women of reproductive age. The rate of malnutritionamong children under five decreased from 30.1 percent in 2000 to 13 percentin 2018. The rate of stunting malnutrition also decreased from 36.5 percent in2000 to 23.3 percent in 2018.
According to a UNICEF report, Vietnam had made impressive progress inreproductive health and maternal and child health. With a four-fold decrease inthe maternal mortality rate and a sharp drop in the under-five mortality rate,the report said Vietnam’s maternal and child health indicators were superior toother countries.
The health sector has reportedly kept HIV/AIDS prevalence in the communitybelow 0.3 percent, and also reduced the number of new infections, and iscontinuing to expand drug dispensing facilities.
Over the last 30 years of implementing epidemic prevention and control, Vietnamhas built up a capacity to monitor, detect, diagnose, identify diseasesand respond quickly and effectively. The country's capacity to preventdangerous and emerging diseases has been improved, as has treatment.Preparations to cope with dangerous diseases have also been put in place.
As a result, many dangerous epidemics have been controlled, repelled anderadicated, such as smallpox in 1978, polio in 2000 and neonatal tetanus in2005. Since 2002 there have been no cases of plague. Some epidemics couldhave been hundreds or thousands times worse had it not been for theexpanded vaccination programme that started in 1981, such as diphtheria,whooping cough and measles. Other circulating epidemics such asdengue fever, viral encephalitis, tuberculosis, typhoid and cholera havealso been controlled.
Vietnam is also one of the first countries to successfully control SARS, A/H5N1flu and A/H1N1 flu, and prevent a number of emerging dangerousepidemics such as influenza A/H7N9, Ebola and MERS-CoV.
Vietnam has a strong monitoring capacity. All emerging infectious diseaseshave been stemmed, including MERS-CoV, Ebola, influenza A/H7N9 and theon-going COVID-19. Effective infectious disease surveillance results fromcommunity supervision, and supervision at border gates and in laboratories.
Grassroots health network
Over the years, the grassroots health network in Vietnam hasbeen strengthened and developed. Vietnam is internationally regarded as one ofthe few countries with a comprehensive and organised health network.
Currently, there are more than 700 district-level health centres, more than11,100 commune-level health stations, of which more than 60 percent meet thenational criteria. 100 percent of communes have health stations orinter-commune general clinics. 87.5 percent of commune health stations havedoctors working (including both long-term and senior physicians, who alternatebetween two and three days a week). 96 percent of commune health stations havea midwife or obstetrics-paediatrics assistant doctor, and over 95 percent ofvillages have health workers or midwives.
There are now more than 1,400 hospitals and 180,000 beds nationwide,where 10 million people are treated each year and 2 million complicatedsurgeries are performed.
Vietnam is recognised as one of the few countries to master vaccine productiontechnology, including three types of seasonal flu vaccines manufacturedand registered for commercialisation. Biotechnology has been applied in thescreening and diagnosis of measles, dengue fever and hand-foot-mouth disease.
The country has also masteredand improved many world-class medical techniques, and transferred advancedtechniques for diagnosis and treatment such as laparoscopic surgery,cardiovascular intervention and diagnostic imaging. The country is also now anexpert in assisted reproduction, treatment of blood cancer, myocardialinfarction, bone-joint disease, burns and plastic surgery. Stem cellapplications in the treatment of blood diseases have also been applied. Thenational health system has 15 facilities for heart, kidney, liver, cornealtransplants, and haematopoietic stem cell transplants.
In October last year, two successful lung transplants marked a new feat in Vietnam’sorgan transplant capacity, after the country conquered the world's mostdifficult transplant technique in 2018. In addition to conventional techniquesfor heart, liver, kidney, bone marrow and corneal transplants, Vietnam hasconfirmed its mastery of multi-organ transplantation.
In the field of obstetrics, Vietnam has also been successful with fetalintervention technology, which is the most modern technology in fetal medicinetoday. Last year, the Hanoi Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital was the firstpublic hospital to successfully implement this technique, successfullyintervening for nearly 20 pregnant women with twins and twin-twintransfusion syndrome. The first baby to receive fetal intervention due to thesyndrome was born healthy on December 14. The fetal intervention technique canintervene in most fetal organs, even the brain, heart and pleura and isconsidered humane, increasing the chances of saving lives for pathologicalfetuses.
Health care goes hi-tech
In the Fourth Industrial Revolution and global medicaltechnology, the Vietnamese health sector has prepared and implemented a numberof smart health applications and development activities, contributing to themodernisation of medical services, protection, care and improvement of people'shealth. The sector also expects to attract foreigners, Vietnamese living abroadand Vietnamese people with high incomes, to enjoy high quality medical care andtreatment in Vietnam from 2020-30.
This Vietnamese Doctors’ Day, there will be no celebration as the Ministryof Health has ordered its departments in 63 provinces and cities to focus onfighting the COVID-19 epidemic.
At an online conference on the prevention and fight against theCOVID-19 epidemic on February 25, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam askeddelegates at the Ministry of Health and more than 700 online points to takeone minute to thank the health workers who laid down their lives and thosewho died during the 2003 SARS epidemic.
He said even without flowers to celebrate Vietnamese Doctors' Day,everyone should still thank their doctors.
“On February 27, we are grateful to the generations of physicians whosacrificed themselves for the cause of national liberation and unity, and protectingthe health of the people, including those who died during the SARS pandemic in2003," Dam said.
"They have left us with valuable examples and lessons,” he said./.
VNA
