On the morning of December 6, in Hanoi, the Tobacco Harm Prevention Fund (Ministry of Health) held a conference to report on the results of work in 2024 and plan orientation for 2025. The event highlighted remarkable progress in the fight against the harmful effects of tobacco, while opening up strategic directions for the following year.
With many positive results, the Conference affirmed the unanimous efforts from the Central to local levels, bringing about clear changes in community awareness and the effectiveness of implementing tobacco prevention and control activities.
MSc. Duong Tu Anh, representative of the Tobacco Harm Prevention Fund, said that a survey in 28 provinces and cities showed that the rate of smoking among adults is still at a worrying level. Can Tho leads the country with a rate of 28.1%, while Nghe An is a bright spot with the lowest rate, only 10.6%.
Despite the implementation of many solutions, the results achieved nationwide have not yet met expectations. By the end of the third quarter of 2024, the country had only 49,600 people successfully quit smoking, 15,164 received short-term counseling, 2,130 received in-depth counseling, and 831 people had their records fully monitored during the quitting process. These figures show that the fight against tobacco still faces many challenges, from public awareness to support resources.
Not only limited to medical facilities, tobacco prevention and control work has also been expanded to education and agriculture. Some localities have integrated tobacco prevention and control content into schools with 145 training courses for 7,570 teachers, helping to raise awareness among the younger generation.
The report on the results of the study "The current status of tobacco use among adults in some provinces and cities in 2024 - PGATS 2024" shows that 28/39 provinces and cities have completed quantitative data analysis. To date, only Kon Tum province - the first province to complete the study and has had a research report approved by the University of Public Health.
The final analysis of the 2024 PGATS study will be available by the end of December 2024 and the Foundation will hold a workshop to announce the study results.
In particular, the Tobacco Harm Prevention Fund has pioneered in coordinating with the Institute of Agricultural Planning and Design to implement a model of converting tobacco cultivation to agricultural crops in Ben Cau district (Tay Ninh) and Chi Lang district (Lang Son).
“We have been to 8 tobacco growing provinces such as Cao Bang, Bac Kan, Khanh Hoa... and organized 22 training courses for 1,029 farmers, guiding them to abandon harmful crops and switch to sustainable agricultural crops towards the goal of preventing the harmful effects of tobacco” - MSc. Duong Tu Anh shared.
Looking to 2025, the Tobacco Harm Prevention Fund sets an ambitious target of increasing the rate of people successfully quitting smoking by 10% compared to 2024. Continuing to build a community-based smoking cessation model, providing counseling support at 9 hospitals and expanding the pilot at 3 district-level health centers. Training 1,000 farmers in tobacco-growing provinces, helping them access new economic models, reducing dependence on tobacco.
