10% of Vietnamese people have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma.

There are currently about 600 million patients in the world suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma.

In Vietnam, data from studies show that the incidence of these two diseases is around 6-10%.

Treatment consultation for tuberculosis patients. (Photo: Duong Ngoc/VNA)

Thus, it is estimated that Vietnam has about 6-8 million patients suffering from these two respiratory diseases. Due to cigarette and tobacco smoking and environmental pollution, the incidence of these two diseases tends to increase.

This information was given at the conference summarizing the project "Prevention of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma" organized by Bach Mai Hospital (Ministry of Health) on January 8.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Xuyen affirmed that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma are the two most common respiratory diseases. With treatment costs of tens of thousands of billions of VND, these two diseases are a heavy burden for families and the whole society.

Faced with this worrying situation, the Ministry of Health has advised the Government to include the content of prevention of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma in the National Target Program for prevention of non-communicable diseases for the period 2012-2015.

The Deputy Minister hopes that in the coming time, the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance will support the project to effectively implement and continue to include the content of prevention of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma in the next stages of the National Target Program. At the same time, he requested the provincial health departments with projects to coordinate with the Central Project Management Board to promptly, effectively and consistently implement the contents of the entire project.

After three years of implementation, the project has been deployed in 25 provinces and cities in the North, Central and South regions; screening for more than 1,000 people, detecting 823 patients, including 311 people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 512 people with bronchial asthma.

The project has also coordinated with the Hanoi Respiratory Association to open a continuing medical training course on respiratory disease diagnosis and treatment techniques for 150 students; deployed a network for managing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma in localities participating in the project with the core being 42 management offices located at provincial general hospitals, tuberculosis and lung disease hospitals in provinces and cities...

In 2014, the project will continue to operate in the provinces where the project has been implemented; it is expected to expand training activities, improve the operation of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma management department; maintain screening for these two diseases at the central level.../.

According to VNA