There is still a large proportion of undiagnosed TB patients in the community
On March 24, the National Lung Hospital and the National Tuberculosis Prevention Program organized a ceremony to celebrate World Tuberculosis Day in Hanoi.
Dr. Dinh Van Luong, Director of the Central Lung Hospital, Head of the National Tuberculosis Prevention Program, said: In Vietnam, the burden of tuberculosis is still very large. It is estimated that there are about 184,000 new cases each year, including thousands of cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis.
Each year, TB still takes the lives of about 12,000 people. Vietnam is currently in the group of 30 countries with the highest burden of TB and drug-resistant TB in the world.
According to Dr. Dinh Van Luong, cases of tuberculosis even without symptoms are not uncommon. Usually, only when patients have a cough, shortness of breath, fever or weight loss do they think about going for examination and taking X-rays to detect tuberculosis. However, reality shows that many cases of tuberculosis are accidentally detected during health check-ups.
One of the major challenges is that disease detection has not yet met expectations. In 2025, the whole country detected more than 110,000 TB cases, equivalent to about 63% of the estimated cases in the community. This means that there is still a large proportion of patients who have not been detected, posing a risk of spreading in the community," he said.
Meanwhile, currently tuberculosis screening has not been included in the list of initial health check-ups and periodic health check-ups.
In fact, in Vietnam, only about 23% of people receive medical examination and treatment (according to the 2024 census), the total number of people with jobs is about 52 million people, although they receive annual periodic health check-ups, they still miss tuberculosis screening.
Thus, the number of people who are not screened for tuberculosis is estimated at about 40-50% of the current population," Mr. Luong emphasized.
Not being detected and treated early makes many people only go for examination when the disease is severe, with complications such as coughing up blood, respiratory failure...
Early detection contributes to reducing infection in the community and reducing treatment costs
Based on the global message "Nation leads - People accompany", Vietnam chose the theme for 2026: "Tuberculosis detection associated with periodic health check-ups for each citizen". This is a strategic step, in line with the innovation orientation of the health sector and the actual situation in the country.
According to the Director of the Central Lung Hospital, to detect tuberculosis early in the community, the National Tuberculosis Prevention Program proposes to integrate tuberculosis screening into periodic health check-ups for people.
According to the orientation from 2026, each citizen will have a periodic health check-up or free screening at least once a year. This is considered an opportunity to detect tuberculosis as well as many other dangerous diseases early.
In which, lung X-ray is considered the optimal diagnostic method, this is a method that can detect suspected tuberculosis lesions even when there are no symptoms. In suspected cases, GeneXpert tests will help diagnose quickly and accurately.
In addition, the application of technology and artificial intelligence in X-ray reading and diagnosis also contributes to improving accuracy and shortening the time to detect the disease. All suspected TB cases will undergo in-depth tests to identify the disease and be put into management and timely treatment in the national TB control system.
Integrating tuberculosis screening into periodic health check-ups not only helps early detection but also contributes to reducing community infection, reducing treatment costs and improving the quality of life for people" - Dr. Dinh Van Luong emphasized.
