Vietnam has eliminated malaria in 46 provinces and centrally-run cities as of the end of last year, and is determined to eradicate the disease by 2030, according to official data.
Policy advocacy will be promoted, along with efforts to call for financial and human resources for the prevention and control of malaria, parasitic and insect-transmitted diseases to successfully eliminate malaria in Vietnam by 2030, heard a conference held by the Ministry of Health and PATH, a global non-profit organisation on public health, in Hanoi on March 22.
Phu Tho province of Vietnam symbolically handed over the centre for malaria prevention, control, and treatment in Luang Namtha on December 23 as a gift for the Lao province.
The Indonesian Health Ministry recently signed eight bilateral agreements with other countries to promote the health transformation, according to the country's Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin.
Vietnam has been making great strides to move from malaria control towards elimination of the disease, but increasing malaria in disadvantaged areas is threatening the country’s overall progress.
Since Vietnam and the World Health Organisation (WHO) set up their partnership in 1976, the WHO, as the world leading technical consultation body in health care, has helped Vietnam’s greatly improve its health sector.
The Prime Minister has approved investment policy for a health cooperation programme with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the fiscal year 2018-2019.
Climate change will cause some 250,000 additional deaths from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat exposure per year between 2030 and 2050, warned Director of the Department of International Cooperation Tran Thi Giang Huong on October 19.
Almost half the country’s provinces have set up a centre for disease control by merging their centres for preventive health, prevention of HIV/AIDS, malaria and others, and the Ministry of Health wants the rest to follow suit.
The health sector aims to keep the rate of people with malaria below 0.15 per thousand and the rate of mortality related to the disease below 0.02 per thousand in the 2016-2020 period.
A project will bolster community-based malaria prevention and control through 2017, with the backing of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The Health Department of the southern coastal province of Ba Ria- Vung Tau hosted a conference on December 17 to seek experts’ solutions to preventing and then eliminating malaria.