US presents tuberculosis detection tools, medications to Vietnam

The rapid diagnostic machine donated to the Vietnamese side (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – The US Agency for International
Development (USAID) delivered new (TB) detection tools and
treatment medications valued at roughly 3 million USD to the National Lung
Hospital of Vietnam on February 16.

The donation, in
support of Vietnam’s goal to end TB by 2030, includes 38 rapid diagnostic
machines with 90,000 compatible test kits and 10 digital X-ray devices to be
distributed to district health facilities across the country, including in the
remote provinces of Nghe An, Lai Chau, An Giang, and Dong Thap, which have high
burden of TB and multidrug-resistant TB.

It
also includes drugs to treat 15,000 patients with latent TB infection for three
months, to be distributed nationwide.

Both
the and the X-ray devices are designed to operate in
hard-to-reach areas. The rapid diagnostic machines, called Truenat, can perform
on-the-spot detection of TB and drug-resistant TB in less than two hours and
are battery powered. The digital X-ray devices are ultra-portable, with
computer-aided TB detection software to assist in areas where radiologists may
not be present.

Vietnam Mission Director Ann Marie Yastishoc (centre) hands over the donation to the of Vietnam (Photo: VNA)

USAID
is funding a tailored package of training curricula and technical support to
the National TB Programme, health facility staff, and local partners. This will
help ensure greater sustainability of efforts to enhance Vietnam’s active case
detection, ensure accurate and timely diagnosis, and support linkages to treatment
of active and latent TB, according to USAID Vietnam Mission Director Ann Marie
Yastishoc.

TB
is preventable and curable. However, Vietnam is among the top 30 countries with
the highest TB burden in the world, with 172,000 people developing TB and more
than 10,000 people dying from TB every year.

The
impacts of COVID-19 have severely reduced TB care and services, with TB
detection in Vietnam decreasing by 23.5 percent in the first 10 months of 2021.
To address this, USAID is also supporting the
integration of TB screening within the Vietnamese Government’s COVID-19
vaccination campaigns./.