Vietnam plans to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) by 2030, according to the National Tuberculosis Prevention (NTP) Programme.
The programme on Dec. 9 revealed its strategy for the next five years to reduce the prevalence of TB by half of the estimated incidence in 2000. It also aims to keep the multi-drug resistance (MDR) rate steady between now and 2015.
"TB epidemiology in Vietnam is still higher than the previous estimation of health experts. Thus, a significant number of TB cases remain undiagnosed or unreported and will continuously be sources of transmission," said NTP Director Dinh Ngoc Sy.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, Vietnam still ranks 12th among 22 TB high burden countries and ranks 14th among 27 countries with a high burden of MDR-TB. The NTP estimated that Vietnam has about 200,000 TB cases of all forms, of which nearly 100,000 are new cases.
The number of TB cases detected and treated consistently remains under 60 percent of new cases annually. MDR-TB is about 20 percent of previously treated TB patients.
Vietnam will have to mobilise about 250 million USD of the total budget of 340 million USD from local and international donors to implement the National Tuberculosis Prevention Programme (NTP) in the next five years, Sy said.
"The State funding for the tuberculosis prevention programme only meets about 30 percent of the budget requirement," he said.
The NTP said TB prevention activities have faced many challenges due to inadequate budget, lack of human resources, legal shortcomings, a weak health system and the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
The programme has set targets for the 2011-15 period that ensure access to and provision of equitable, high-quality and basic directly observed treatment (DOT) services at all levels of the healthcare system; address TB/HIV, MDR-TB and TB control in prisons; integrate NTP into the health system; and mobilise the involvement of all economic sectors in the NTP fight.
WHO estimates there are about 2 million new TB cases worldwide, 93 percent of which are in Vietnam , the Philippines , Cambodia and China . In fact, 260,000 people die from TB each year in the Western Pacific region./.
The programme on Dec. 9 revealed its strategy for the next five years to reduce the prevalence of TB by half of the estimated incidence in 2000. It also aims to keep the multi-drug resistance (MDR) rate steady between now and 2015.
"TB epidemiology in Vietnam is still higher than the previous estimation of health experts. Thus, a significant number of TB cases remain undiagnosed or unreported and will continuously be sources of transmission," said NTP Director Dinh Ngoc Sy.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, Vietnam still ranks 12th among 22 TB high burden countries and ranks 14th among 27 countries with a high burden of MDR-TB. The NTP estimated that Vietnam has about 200,000 TB cases of all forms, of which nearly 100,000 are new cases.
The number of TB cases detected and treated consistently remains under 60 percent of new cases annually. MDR-TB is about 20 percent of previously treated TB patients.
Vietnam will have to mobilise about 250 million USD of the total budget of 340 million USD from local and international donors to implement the National Tuberculosis Prevention Programme (NTP) in the next five years, Sy said.
"The State funding for the tuberculosis prevention programme only meets about 30 percent of the budget requirement," he said.
The NTP said TB prevention activities have faced many challenges due to inadequate budget, lack of human resources, legal shortcomings, a weak health system and the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
The programme has set targets for the 2011-15 period that ensure access to and provision of equitable, high-quality and basic directly observed treatment (DOT) services at all levels of the healthcare system; address TB/HIV, MDR-TB and TB control in prisons; integrate NTP into the health system; and mobilise the involvement of all economic sectors in the NTP fight.
WHO estimates there are about 2 million new TB cases worldwide, 93 percent of which are in Vietnam , the Philippines , Cambodia and China . In fact, 260,000 people die from TB each year in the Western Pacific region./.
