Rally in response to World Tuberculosis Day March 24

(Baonghean.vn) - On March 24, the Department of Health coordinated with the Provincial Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases Hospital to organize a rally in response to "World Tuberculosis Day" and "Month of Action for Tuberculosis Prevention and Control 2014" with the message "All people are determined to successfully implement the National Strategy for Tuberculosis Prevention and Control". Attending the ceremony were Mr. Dau Huy Hoan - Deputy Director of the Department of Health and leaders of departments, branches and representatives of medical units across the province.

According to the World Health Organization, tuberculosis is currently one of the five diseases that cause the highest mortality in Vietnam, and Vietnam is currently ranked 12th out of 22 countries with the highest prevalence of tuberculosis. In our country today, the annual risk of tuberculosis infection is 1.6%, the mortality rate due to tuberculosis is 23 people/100,000 people. Especially in recent years, the situation of tuberculosis combined with HIV and drug-resistant tuberculosis has become extremely complicated.

In recent years, with the support of the national TB prevention program and international organizations, the attention of the province, the participation of the Department of Health, the coordination between departments, branches, and social organizations, TB prevention activities in our province have achieved remarkable results. Specifically, the total number of TB patients in all forms detected, managed, and treated is 2,381 patients, the cure rate is 91.1%, the rate of patients who dropped out of treatment is less than 1%.

Overview of the rally

However, the current TB prevention work in our province still faces many difficulties and challenges such as: lack of facilities for TB prevention work at all levels; coordination activities in district health units (health departments, health centers, general hospitals) are not yet synchronized; inspection and supervision work still has many shortcomings. Besides, a large number of people still have inferiority complex about TB. The coordination of authorities at all levels, sectors, unions, and social organizations with TB prevention programs is not regular. The coordination between public and private health facilities in detecting, managing, and treating TB patients is not really effective; leading to the problem of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant TB developing complicatedly, making treatment difficult. The impact of HIV/AIDS also increases the burden of TB. In addition, the difficulty in accessing health care services for people in remote areas is also a major obstacle to current tuberculosis prevention work.

Health department leaders spoke and called on the community to join hands to fight tuberculosis.

Director of Tuberculosis and Lung Hospital spoke at the ceremony

The National Tuberculosis Control Program has proposed the theme for this year's World Tuberculosis Day as "Everyone has the right and obligation to participate in the fight against Tuberculosis". At the launching ceremony, Nghe An health sector proposed solutions to promote tuberculosis prevention in the coming time, focusing on calling on the community to participate, towards the goal of "For a Vietnam without tuberculosis". Accordingly, the sector will focus on promoting propaganda to raise awareness of tuberculosis in the community; strengthen the tuberculosis control network from the province to the grassroots level, improve the testing system at all levels to further improve the quality of detection, management and treatment of patients. At the same time, strengthen inspection and supervision of tuberculosis treatment at all levels, mobilize stronger participation of sectors, unions and the whole community to participate in tuberculosis prevention.

News and photos:Nguyet Temple