Hanoi (VNA) – The preventive medicine sector must put human being at the centre of its activities to control diseases and manage the health of people, said President Tran Dai Quang.
The President on December 5 met with health officials and workers who are presented with the biennial Dang Van Ngu award by the Ministry of Health in recognition of their outstanding contributions and achievements in preventive medicine.
In 2016, as many as 119 collectives and individuals are honoured with the award.
President Quang said the sector has made efforts, well coordinated with other sectors and localities and mobilised every resource to achieve the targets set in the national goal programmes, thus helping Vietnam complete the UN Millennium Goals in reducing malnutrition and malaria, eradicating dangerous diseases and controlling new diseases.
The State leader recommended the sector to work harder so that it could detect emerging and dangerous diseases to recommend advice and solutions as well as take necessary measures to help people protect their health.
He also urged the sector to boost scientific research, develop vaccine-production technologies and increase international cooperation and exchanges of information to enhance Vietnam’s position on the international arena.
In the past 60 years, the preventive medicine has developed comprehensively and achieved great achievements like eradicating smallpox and polio, cutting infectious diseases by thousands or hundreds times, providing vaccination for over 90 percent of children aged under 12 months and increasing the rate of people accessing clean water and sanitation.
The sector is able to produce 10 out of 12 vaccines in the expanded immunisation programme and is capable of taking tests on new diseases./.
VNA