The Vietnamese Health Ministry and the US Department for Health andHuman Services reached an agreement on health and medical sciencecooperation in Hanoi on June 17.
Under the deal signed by HealthMinister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien and visiting US Secretary of Health andHuman Services Kathleen Sebelius, the two sides will cooperate in thefields of medical science and training.
Accordingly, the US sidewill help Vietnam enhance the capacity of staff responsible forcontrolling the quality of drugs. New methods and techniques will betransferred to the Vietnamese side.
The two sides will work together to quickly discover and prevent fake and low-quality drugs.
They also agreed to join hands in establishing medical standards andimproving the quality of laboratories and setting up biological safetylabs.
HIV/AIDS prevention is also part of the two sides’ cooperation.
At the signing ceremony, Minister Tien and Secretary Sebeliusdiscussed priorities for the two sides’ cooperation, includingpreventive medicine, HIV/AIDS prevention and global health security.
In 1979, Vietnam and the US first saw health and medical cooperationthrough non-governmental organisations. Since the two countriesnormalised their diplomatic ties in 1995, the two sides have carried outhealth cooperation in various sectors, including HIV/AIDS preventionand medical staff training.
In July 2006, the first agreement onhealth and medical science cooperation between Vietnam and the US wassigned, focusing on fighting HIV/AIDS, enhancing the capacity of thoseworking in the fields of food safety and hygiene, and pharmacy.
The same day, the US official visited poultry market Ha Vy in Hanoi’sThuong Tin district. She then visited and worked with Hanoi MedicineUniversity.-VNA