Representatives of the Health Ministry and AstraZeneca at the MoU signing ceremony in Hanoi on March 8. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The and AstraZeneca
Vietnam on March 8 signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation under
which they will work with partners to promote existing and new programmes to
improve public awareness of diseases, prevention, and early detection.
In particular, they will cooperate in such programmes as “For
healthy lungs”, which aims to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and management
of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and
lung cancer; a programme helping the youth adopt a healthy lifestyle to prevent
; CareMe, which aims to consolidate the system caring
for cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic diseases; the second phase of a
cooperation programme for the sustainability and resilience of Vietnam’s health
system; and another on strengthening the capacity of the clinical research and
testing system in the country.
At the signing ceremony in Hanoi, Deputy Minister of
Health Nguyen Thi Lien Huong said surmounting different waves of COVID-19
infections, Vietnam’s has proved its responsiveness and
resilience to contain and safely and flexibly adapt to the pandemic.
However,
the system has been heavily affected by the pandemic as well as lingering
challenges such as the burden of non-communicable diseases, population aging, the
limited capacity of grassroots healthcare establishments, and the shortage of medical
workers.
To achieve universal health coverage as part of the
Sustainable Development Goals, Vietnam’s health system needs to be
reinforced comprehensively with better capacity and efficiency towards an
equal, efficient, quality, and sustainable system that meets all people’s
healthcare demand, she went on.
Appreciating AstraZeneca’s assistance for Vietnam’s health
sector, especially in the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccine
strategy, Huong described the MoU signing as an important landmark in bilateral
cooperation and expressed her hope that the relevant parties will work together
effectively to obtain the set targets.
Leon Wang, Executive Vice President
for International Markets, said the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change has
shown the importance of protecting and building a sustainable and resilient health
system, which is a common target requiring public – private partnerships along
with inter-sectoral and multinational coordination./.
Source: VietnamPlus
