USAID helps Vietnam redouble efforts to end TB

Double
X is a new strategy to diagnose TB using chest X-rays and GeneXpert, a
diagnostic method that detects TB bacteria.

At
an event entitled “Health Partnerships to End TB in Vietnam – Applying the
“Double X” Strategy held on December 15 in Hanoi, participants shared key
achievements and lessons in implementing the Strategy, including key
achievements of the NTP toward TB goals; outcomes from USAID Sustainable HIV
and TB Responses from Technical Assistance (SHIFT) activity on the Double-X
Strategy in seven provinces in Vietnam, experiences from provincial TB
programmes; and multi-faceted TB strategies using Double X from international
organisations.

Vietnam
ranks 11th among the 30 countries that account for nearly 90 percent of
the world’s TB burden. It is also one of the most common communicable diseases
in the country.

Each
year, it is estimated that 170,000 people become sick from TB in Vietnam, but
only around 100,000 are accounted for in the National TB system, leaving around
50,000 community TB cases undiagnosed, and the remaining 20,000 diagnosed but
not reported.

Deputy
Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen said the country has made encouraging
achievements in the fight against TB, especially the fact that it could
successfully treat 92 percent of first-time TB patients, 75-80 percent of
the patients with multidrug resistant TB with short-term treatment while the
global figure is about 56 percent.

The
number of TB patients is on a gradual downtrend, with a decline of only 4 percent
a year, according to Tuyen, who said the national programme should maximise the
use of existing tools in diagnosing and treating TB with universal health
insurance; while at the same time, expanding the application of new
identification tools, new drugs and vaccines, with the help of partners both in
and outside the country.

Professor
Nguyen Viet Nhung, chair of the national programme on fighting TB, said just
like COVID-19, TB infection incidents need to be detected as soon as possible
so risks of transmission in the community are reduced and the hospitalisation
for the patients themselves would be shorter.

Ending
the TB epidemic in Vietnam will require intensive effort. The USAID SHIFT
project’s partnership with the NTP has piloted the comprehensive Double X
Strategy in health facilities and communities in 18 districts in seven
provinces (Thai Binh, Nghe An, An Giang, Can Tho, Dong Nai, Tay Ninh, and Tien
Giang).

Double
X will be further scaled up to 25 provinces in December 2020. Sites for
implementation will include provincial hospitals (lung hospitals, general
hospitals) as well as district health centres and general hospitals./.