Thus, Vietnam still has a large gap in diagnosing and detecting tuberculosis cases in the community.
At the "Regional Workshop on Xpert TB External Testing" organized by the National Lung Hospital and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Vietnam shared its experience in the external testing program for the Xpert molecular test for diagnosing tuberculosis and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.
This is an activity within the framework of a cooperation project between the National Tuberculosis Control Program, the Central Lung Hospital and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to conduct training to improve the capacity to ensure the quality of tuberculosis testing for human resources performing tuberculosis testing in Vietnam.
The Xpert MTB/RIF test is a molecular biological test for diagnosing tuberculosis and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis recommended by the World Health Organization since December 2010. To date, about 140 countries and territories worldwide have implemented this test.
In Vietnam, the Xpert MTB/RIF test has been deployed by the National Tuberculosis Control Program since 2011 at the National Standard Tuberculosis Laboratory. To date, Vietnam has installed, put into use, and managed 332 GeneXpert machines at 182 deployment points nationwide.
The number of tests nationwide increases gradually every year. In 2023, 452,279 tests will be performed nationwide, an increase of more than 113% compared to 2022.
Dr. Dinh Van Luong, Senior Physician - Director of the Central Lung Hospital, Head of the Executive Board of the National Tuberculosis Control Program - expressed pride in Vietnam's role as a regional hub in providing and transferring external control programs for Xpert molecular testing to many countries in the region.
The Department of Microbiology and National Standard Tuberculosis Laboratory of the Central Lung Hospital has developed the domestic Xpert MTB/RIF external inspection program to maintain the initiative and sustainability of the quality assurance activities of the Program. The Central Lung Hospital has applied the ISO/IEC 17043:2010 quality management system recognized by the Quality Office - Ministry of Science and Technology of Thailand in March 2019.
In particular, the MTB/RIF external control program of the Central Lung Hospital has provided external control samples from countries such as Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Bangladesh, and Papua New Guinea in recent years.
In 2024, the Central Lung Hospital will continue to maintain two activities of providing external sample sets for Bangladesh and Papua New Guinea with more than 200 sample sets and providing technology consulting support for sample set production for the Philippines.
To improve the rate of tuberculosis case detection in the coming time, the Vietnam National Tuberculosis Control Program is focusing resources to expand access to rapid molecular tests for tuberculosis diagnosis recommended by the World Health Organization.
"Along with strengthening and expanding the scope and quantity of TB testing, the Vietnam National Tuberculosis Control Program also focuses on ensuring the quality of testing as a key factor in early detection of TB cases and effective treatment monitoring," said Mr. Luong.
