Up to nearly 40% of tuberculosis patients have no symptoms.
At the ceremony to celebrate the 117th birthday of Dr. Pham Ngoc Thach and the Conference to summarize the activities of the National Tuberculosis Prevention Program in 2025 and deploy the 2026 operating plan, held on May 7 in Hanoi, Dr. Dinh Van Luong - Director of the Central Lung Hospital, Head of the National Tuberculosis Prevention Program Steering Committee shared with the press about new tasks in tuberculosis prevention and control.
According to Dr. Luong, although a large number of TB patients have been detected and treated with good results, the reality of TB in Vietnam is still very serious. In the general community, we estimate that there are about over 180,000 TB patients. Among them, the rate of undetected cases is still very high, accounting for about 40%.
The problem here is that nearly 40% of TB patients have no symptoms. Thus, all the patients that we have deployed screening and proactive detection in the past, although very active, the number of patients without symptoms still "lingers" in the community that we do not know all about.
Vietnam is still in the group of 30 countries with the highest burden of tuberculosis in the world (ranked 12th). Previously, we talked about proactive detection, but it only covered about 3-4 million people in the high-risk group. A part of the population still avoids going to the doctor because of the stigma of tuberculosis.
Implementing the direction of the Politburo in Resolution No. 72 on a number of breakthrough solutions to strengthen the protection, care and improvement of people's health; "From 2026, people will have periodic health check-ups or free screenings at least once a year, and electronic health records will be established to manage health according to the life cycle, gradually reducing the burden of medical expenses", the Central Lung Hospital - National Program Against Tuberculosis has proposed that the Ministry of Health direct all medical facilities to promptly and synchronously implement the integration of tuberculosis screening in annual periodic health check-ups for each citizen.
According to Dr. Luong, Resolution 72 of the Politburo was issued, emphasizing community health check-ups. Specifically, with tuberculosis control, each citizen must have a periodic health check-up or screening at least once a year for free.
This is a very important key. The slogan of this year's Tuberculosis Prevention Program is: "Detecting tuberculosis associated with periodic health check-ups for each citizen". We believe that if Resolution 72 is thoroughly implemented, tuberculosis control will be very good and Vietnam will quickly end tuberculosis" - Mr. Luong said.
Ho Chi Minh City is currently the locality that discovers the most tuberculosis patients in the country.
According to Dr. Luong, Ho Chi Minh City will implement periodic health check-ups for all 14-15 million people, associated with tuberculosis control according to Resolution 72.
Ho Chi Minh City is the place that detects the most TB patients in the country (more than 20,000 people/year). The city has about 400 medical examination and treatment facilities. If each facility is equipped with a portable digital X-ray machine (no need for a movie reader because there is AI artificial intelligence support), the total cost is about 130 billion VND. This is an effective investment because the machine can be used for many years, helping to detect TB early and accurately" - Dr. Dinh Van Luong said.
Reporting on the tuberculosis prevention program in Ho Chi Minh City, representatives of Pham Ngoc Thach Hospital said that in the past year, the city has implemented tuberculosis screening associated with periodic health check-ups for people. Implementing the development of a project to advise the Department of Health on screening for early detection of tuberculosis associated with periodic health check-ups. Currently, the city is monitoring and treating more than 20,500 people with tuberculosis.
It is expected that in 2026, the city will prioritize choosing early screening and diagnosis models for tuberculosis depending on each region, such as integrating tuberculosis screening in medical examination and treatment for people at high risk of tuberculosis and with suspected symptoms; periodic health check-ups, community health programs,... to detect tuberculosis patients early for timely treatment.
From the Ho Chi Minh City model, Dr. Luong hopes that other provinces and cities will also implement this principle. The National Tuberculosis Prevention Program will closely coordinate with the grassroots health network and the political system to successfully detect tuberculosis, towards the goal of ending tuberculosis in Vietnam.
Regarding this issue, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Lien Huong requested to strengthen tuberculosis detection in medical examination and treatment, considering this as a routine task of all medical facilities, both public and non-public; integrate tuberculosis screening and detection into free periodic health check-ups for people.
