JICA helps Vietnamese hospitals in fight against COVID-19

Patient 91 is being treated at Cho Ray Hospital. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) - The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has provided aid packages worth 80 million JPY (around 733.300 USD) to support Vietnam’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first part of the aid package worth 60 million JPY (550,000 USD) allocated for Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City includes 2,000 copies of the Nosocomial Infection Control Manual. The manuals were handed over to the Cho Ray Hospital by the JICA Vietnam Office on June 3.

Another package worth 20 million JPY (some 183,300 USD) will be given to six provincial Centres of Disease Control (CDCs) in northern Nam Dinh, Ha Giang, Bac Giang, Vinh Phuc, and southern Kien Giang and Tra Vinh provinces.

The manual was compiled by the infection control ward at the hospital with technical assistance from JICA experts. It is also hoped to improve infection control activities at the Cho Ray Vietnam-Japan Friendship Hospital (Cho Ray 2) as well as at 21 provincial-level hospitals in the south and the Mekong Delta.

Speaking at a meeting with a delegation of the JICA Vietnam Office at the Cho Ray Hospital on June 3, Director of Cho Ray Hospital Nguyen Tri Thuc said Cho Ray was one of the first hospitals in Vietnam to receive support from JICA, beginning in 1969.

The hospital is working with JICA to build the Cho Ray Vietnam -Japan Friendship Hospital, Thuc said.

JICA is implementing a technical cooperation project to improve hospital management at the Cho Ray Hospital through applying safety procedures for patients, coordinating between clinical procedures and multidisciplinary teams, and promoting measures to control hospital infections.

In August last year, in a bid to strengthen infection control at Cho Ray and within the framework of the project, training courses on the use of protective equipment were held for the hospital’s doctors and nurses.

Before the first COVID-19 case was moved to the Cho Ray Hospital for treatment in January 2020, JICA experts provided documents and organised training courses on infection control at the hospital.

JICA has implemented non-refundable aid projects since 2006 to help improve the capacity of medical laboratory networks regarding biosafety and the examination of highly hazardous and infectious pathogens at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) and the HCM City-based Pasteur Institute, in the context of Vietnam not having to deal with many infectious diseases in the past.

JICA experts have also worked with NIHE and the Pasteur Institute to identify solutions to improve testing capacity for dangerous infectious diseases as well as COVID-19 in provincial-level CDCs in particular and in medical establishments around Vietnam in general.

JICA is advancing its activities around the pillars of a field-oriented approach, human security, and enhanced effectiveness, efficiency, and speed.

The agency, with its partners, will take the lead in forging bonds of trust across the world, aspiring for a free, peaceful and prosperous world where people can hope for a better future and explore their diverse potentials.

In February, JICA presented the first batch of biological products worth about 2.3 million JPY (20,900 USD) to Vietnam, aiming to help the country promptly respond to the acute respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.  

The products were handed to the Hanoi-based National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.

The batch is part of Japan’s aid package valued at about 14 million JPY for Vietnam, which includes different types of biological products in service of rapid and accurate virus testing. 

The Ministry of Health has assigned the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology to carry out tests on samples of suspected COVID-19 cases in the northern region./.