Responding to World Population Day (July 11): Investing in population work is investing in sustainable development
Responding to World Population Day (July 11), the Provincial Department of Population - Family Planning and relevant agencies and localities are synchronously implementing solutions to improve population quality, enhance the role and position of women and girls in the family, community and society.
Media to improve population quality
In early July, a communication program on reducing Thalassemia disease was organized by the Department of Population and Family Planning in Ky Son and Que Phong districts.
Traveling nearly 30km from Tri Le commune to Kim Son town, Ms. Ngan Thi Cuong - a population officer of the commune said: We received the notice about the training class nearly a week ago and the people in the commune are very excited. Everyone even told each other to rent a car together for safety. I find participating in this program very meaningful, because Thalassemia is a dangerous disease and appears a lot in ethnic minorities or mountainous districts. The knowledge equipped today will be the basis for us to go back to propagate to raise awareness for people in the area.
Thalassemia (congenital hemolytic disease) is the most common genetic hematological disease in the world today, with 7% of the global population carrying the disease gene, more than 200 countries and territories are affected by this disease, including Vietnam. Currently, the whole country has more than 12 million people carrying the disease gene and the high rate of disease gene carriers is in mountainous districts.
Thalassemia is one of the diseases that has caused very serious consequences to the race and it is noteworthy that when the number of people carrying the disease gene is large, the disease is at risk of increasing rapidly if there is no preventive solution.
Right in Nghe An, according to the report of the Provincial Hematology and Blood Transfusion Center, the number of patients coming to the Center for treatment is about 350 - 400 people every year. However, this is only the number of patients detected and being treated at some hospitals. In reality, in the community, mainly in remote, mountainous areas, the number of patients that have not been detected is quite large and the specific assessment of the current situation of patients with congenital hemolytic anemia in Nghe An.
Doctor CKI Phan Van Hue - Deputy Head of the Department in charge of the Department of Population - Family Planning
In recent years, communication programs on Thalassemia have been organized in many areas in Nghe An with the desire to help people raise awareness, understanding and have solutions for prevention.
This activity is also an important content with humanistic significance in improving community health and improving population quality, especially in mountainous districts where the rate of patients with Thalassemia is high.
Doctor Phan Van Hue also said that although the consequences of this disease are very serious, if we are proactive, we can prevent getting the disease: If we want to improve the quality of the population, it must be done right from the moment young couples start getting married.
Therefore, we recommend that people of childbearing age and those planning to have children should have genetic testing as soon as possible to proactively choose prenatal diagnosis methods. In addition, blood sampling and early screening after birth are also extremely important, because there are cases where families with no history of the disease can still give birth to sick children.
Increase investment in population work
In 2024, while in the world, the United Nations Population Fund chose the theme "Celebrating 30 years of implementing the Program of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo 1994", in Vietnam, World Population Day was deployed with the content "Investing in population work is investing in sustainable development".
In the spirit of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, over the past 30 years, Vietnam has adopted innovative approaches to address inequality and narrow the gap in socio-economic development between regions and population groups. Vietnam has just surpassed the 100 million population mark. Life expectancy has increased. Vietnam has bucked global trends in reducing maternal mortality over the past 30 years and its modern contraceptive use rate is among the highest in the world.
However, besides the achieved results, Vietnam's population work still faces many difficulties and challenges, such as the risk of not achieving the goal of maintaining the replacement fertility rate nationwide; the rapid rate of population aging and soon becoming an aging country; the sex ratio at birth remains high; the situation of early marriage and consanguineous marriage is still slow to be overcome; the quality of the population, especially in remote, isolated and disadvantaged areas, is still limited.
In Nghe An, along with the common difficulties, the province's population work also has its own characteristics. Currently, Nghe An is one of the provinces with a high birth rate, a large number of women of childbearing age, and a large demand for contraceptives.
Besides, the birth rate of the third child or more in 2023, although decreasing, is still high at 28.08%; The gender imbalance ratio at birth remains high at 116.33 boys/100 live birth girls.
Reality also shows that in recent years, although population quality has been improved, it is still low, especially in remote, rural and coastal areas, and that will directly impact life, society and sustainable development in the present and future.
Nationwide, while many provinces and cities have shifted their focus from Population - Family Planning to Population and Development in the spirit of Resolution No. 21-NQ/TW, Nghe An still has to carry out two tasks in parallel.
Meanwhile, although population work is an important task, some local Party committees and authorities have not yet properly and fully recognized the long-term, difficult, complex nature, importance and significance of population and development work, so leadership and direction are sometimes not resolute and effective.
With its own challenges, the occasion of World Population Day (July 11) is an opportunity for the whole industry to look back at the achievements, difficulties, and problems and propose solutions for the coming time.
In particular, it is necessary to focus on propaganda, mobilization, and promoting the implementation of reproductive health care/family planning services in particularly disadvantaged communes, religious areas, coastal areas, special areas, high birth rate areas, and industrial zones; and to promote the responsibility of departments, branches, and localities for population work.
In response to World Population Day, we have launched many propaganda contents such as: Benefits of having 2 children; changing gender behavior and gender equality; communication to enhance the role and position of women and girls in the family, community and society...
However, more importantly, through this anniversary, we hope to strengthen the leadership and direction of Party committees and authorities at all levels, the coordination and participation of departments, branches, organizations and the response of all classes of people in implementing population policies.
In addition, there must be priority policies and investment in population work so that everyone is aware that "Investing in population work is investing in sustainable development" and the results achieved are not only for today but also for the long term and affect all developments of the whole society./Doctor CKI Phan Van Hue - Deputy Head of the Department in charge of the Department of Population - Family Planning
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