At the working session (Photo: VNA)
Geneva (VNA) – Vietnam is one of the
leading countries in the world in implementing the of the World
Health Organisation (WHO), according to Director of the WHO’s Global
Tuberculosis (TB) Programme Tereza Kasaeva.
She made the evaluation at a meeting with the
Vietnamese delegation led by Deputy Health Minister Le Quang Cuong on the
sidelines of the 71st World Health Assembly (WHA) held in Geneva, Switzerland,
from May 21-26.
The Director lauded Vietnam for applying quickly
and effectively new technologies to fight tuberculosis in a short span of time.
She recgonised Vietnam as an example in
implementing the WHO’s strategy to end the global TB epidemic.
Vietnam has also been realising contents in the
to End TB adopted at the first WHO Global Ministerial
Conference in Russia in November 2017.
WHO also appreciated the country’s sharing of its
experience in fighting TB, such as its hosting of a policy dialogue on
accelerating actions to prevent TB and multi-drug-resistant TB in the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) region in August 2017.
WHO recognised the contributions of Director of the
Central Lung Hospital Nguyen Viet Nhung, Manager of the National TB Control
Programme, for his active participation in strategic advisory councils,
guidelines development and research orientations of the WHO for many years.
The organisation asked the Vietnamese government
and Ministry of Health to attend the first-ever high-level meeting of the
United Nations on ending TB slated for New York in September this year.
TB remains the leading cause of fatality in the
world, leading to the deaths of nearly 2 million people every year,
particularly drug-resistant TB has threatened global health.
In Vietnam,
the WHO estimates that there are nearly 130,000 new cases of TB diagnosed each
year, resulting in some 16,000 deaths in the Southeast Asian country in 2015.
Vietnam ranked 16h among 30 countries with the
highest number of TB patients globally. It also ranked 13th among 30 countries
with the biggest burden of multi drug-resistant TB in the world.
The country is a leading nation in terms of TB
prevention efforts. The rate of successful treatment for multi drug resistant
TB in Vietnam is over 70 percent, much higher than the world’s rate of 54
percent.
Thanks to early detection and effective
treatment, TB-related deaths reduced 3,000 cases during 2015-2016. The country
has set a target to cut 30 percent of TB infection cases and 40 percent of TB
deaths during 2015-2020.-VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
