Recently, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan signed Report No. 189/BC-BYT to the Prime Minister on receiving and explaining the conclusion of the National Assembly Standing Committee, the opinions of Government members and the conclusion of the Deputy Prime Minister on the proposal to add the draft Law on Disease Prevention to the 2025 Law and Ordinance Development Program.
The Ministry of Health believes that the development of the Law on Disease Prevention is an important and urgent task in protecting and improving public health, meeting practical requirements and development trends of society, so the Ministry of Health continues to propose adding the draft Law on Disease Prevention to the 2025 Law and Ordinance Development Program to be considered and issued by the National Assembly soon this year.
Dr. Hoang Minh Duc - Director of the Department of Preventive Medicine informed that Article 38 of the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam stipulates that "everyone is obliged to implement regulations on disease prevention, examination and treatment".
Resolution No. 20-NQ/TW dated October 25, 2017 has given the view: "Developing Vietnam's scientific, ethnic and mass medicine sector. Build a fair, quality, effective and integrated health system according to the motto of disease prevention over treatment; preventive medicine is the key, primary health is the foundation; specialized health care is synchronous and balanced with community health".
However, Dr. Duc said that in the past, people's quality of life was limited due to disease; Vietnamese people have a relatively high life expectancy compared to countries with the same standard of living, but have more years of living with disease.
"The reason is that the unreasonable diet leads to limited physical development, the stature of Vietnamese people as well as an increase in non-communicable diseases related to nutrition; the rapid increase of non-communicable diseases and the burden of disease, accounting for 73.7% of the burden of disease in Vietnam and is the leading cause of death, accounting for 81.4% of total deaths nationwide" - Dr. Duc said.
At the same time, mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, post-concussion stress disorder, alcoholism and stimulants are increasing, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the impact of loss, economic difficulties and life pressure, increasing the need for mental health care.
Analyzing further the causes, Dr. Duc pointed out that the increase in environmental risk factors such as environmental pollution, limited awareness of personal hygiene and environmental sanitation, climate change and extreme weather phenomena, etc. affect the health of many communities, contributing to the increase in hospitalizations.
At the same time, according to the World Health Organization, up to 60 to 75% of cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes originate from unreasonable nutrition, over 35% of cancer cases are related to diet, nutrition and lifestyle.
"Preventing infectious diseases and chronic infections in the past will help reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases in the future" - Dr. Duc said.
The Ministry of Health proposes to develop the Law on Disease Prevention in the direction of inheriting, revising, amending, and supplementing on the basis of the provisions of the Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases and supplementing regulations on:
- Prevention and control of non-communicable diseases;
- Prevent and combat mental health disorders;
- Ensuring nutrition in disease prevention;
- Preventing diseases from the impact of other risk factors such as disease prevention in educational institutions, in providing clean water, protecting health against air pollution and climate change, preventing injuries and providing first aid in the community;
- Guaranteed conditions for disease prevention.
"This is the first time that policies have been proposed for adjustment at the legal level to ensure that these activities are implemented stably, long-term and are a new direction for disease prevention to meet the requirements of people's health protection and care" - Dr. Hoang Minh Duc emphasized.
Based on the model and burden of disease, the Ministry of Health identifies and proposes 5 policies to be included in the draft Law; each policy has its own goal of preventing diseases in each field, but all aim at the common, consistent goal of disease prevention, contributing to protecting and caring for people's health.
The proposal of the above 5 policies in the draft Law on Disease Prevention is completely consistent with the model and burden of disease in Vietnam on prevention and control of infectious diseases.
