The health sector faces many challenges as Vietnam continues to be in the group of countries with a high burden of tuberculosis and drug-resistant tuberculosis in the world.
The success rate of new and recurrent tuberculosis treatment reaches nearly 90%
The above information was released at the 117th anniversary of Dr. Pham Ngoc Thach's birth and the Conference summarizing the activities of the National Tuberculosis Prevention Program in 2025, held on May 7 in Hanoi.
According to a report by the National Tuberculosis Prevention Program, in 2025, the whole country detected 119,033 new and recurrent TB cases, an increase of 4.7% compared to 2024. This is the highest number of cases detected to date. The success rate of new and recurrent TB treatment reached nearly 90%.
Notably, the TB prevention and control system continues to be maintained stably from the Central to local levels, ensuring coverage in 100% of communes and wards. Proactive detection activities, application of new technologies, public-private health coordination and connection between medical facilities are being implemented more and more effectively.
In the past year, the National Tuberculosis Control Program has also promoted the application of modern testing technology. The total number of Xpert tests performed reached more than 522,000, thereby detecting nearly 98,000 cases of tuberculosis bacteria. New techniques such as gene sequencing, FilmArray, Truenat, BD MAX... continue to be evaluated and implemented to improve diagnostic capacity.
Tuberculosis/HIV coordination continues to be expanded. In 2025, more than 81,900 tuberculosis patients were consulted for HIV testing; 2,004 cases of tuberculosis/HIV were detected, of which 72.3% were treated with both tuberculosis and ARV at the same time.
Speaking at the conference, Dr. Dinh Van Luong - Director of the Central Lung Hospital, Head of the National Tuberculosis Prevention Program - said that the achieved results have been contributed by the strong political commitment of the Party and State, the drastic direction of the Ministry of Health and the participation of the entire tuberculosis prevention system nationwide.
However, according to Mr. Luong, TB prevention and control work still faces many major difficulties.
The burden of tuberculosis in Vietnam is still high compared to the region. Vietnam currently ranks 12th among 30 countries with a high burden of tuberculosis and 10th among 30 countries with the highest drug-resistant tuberculosis burden globally," Mr. Luong said.
Integrating tuberculosis screening into free periodic health check-ups for people
According to estimates by the World Health Organization, in 2024 Vietnam had about 184,000 new TB cases, 9,400 drug-resistant TB cases and about 12,000 deaths from TB. Worryingly, nearly 40% of TB patients have not been detected and reported in the community.
In addition, resources for tuberculosis prevention and control in some localities are still limited and do not meet actual needs. The rate of admission for drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment in 2025 reached 73%, while the rate of successful treatment in this group reached 76%, lower than the set target.
Faced with the above situation, the National Tuberculosis Prevention Program has identified the key theme for 2026 as "Tuberculosis Detection associated with periodic health check-ups for each citizen". Accordingly, tuberculosis screening activities will be integrated into annual periodic health check-ups to detect early and reduce infection in the community.
Speaking to direct at the conference, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Lien Huong requested units to focus on synchronously implementing many key tasks to move towards the goal of ending tuberculosis by 2030.
In which, the Ministry of Health requests to strengthen the involvement of all levels and sectors; ensure resources for tuberculosis detection, diagnosis and treatment; consolidate the capacity of tuberculosis and lung disease hospitals in localities. At the same time, all medical facilities, both public and non-public, need to consider tuberculosis detection as a routine task in medical examination and treatment.
The Deputy Minister also emphasized the requirement to integrate tuberculosis screening into free periodic health check-ups for people; strengthen training of medical personnel; promote digital transformation, apply science and technology in tuberculosis diagnosis and screening.
According to the National Tuberculosis Prevention Program, there are currently 45 mobile digital X-ray vehicles, about 250 X-ray machines and 500 GeneXpert machines in 34 provinces and cities nationwide, creating a platform to expand tuberculosis detection activities in the community.
