On January 9, the National Tuberculosis Control Program in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) organized a conference "Introducing new guidelines and policies in tuberculosis prevention" for 63 provinces/cities.
The conference updated three new technical guidelines of the Ministry of Health and the National Tuberculosis Control Program on the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis. The guidelines aim to proactively detect tuberculosis, latent tuberculosis, and some respiratory diseases in the community and medical facilities; diagnose and treat chronic pulmonary aspergillosis. Thereby, enhancing disease detection, effective treatment, and improving the quality of life of tuberculosis patients.
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by tuberculosis bacteria, the disease is transmitted through the air so it is very difficult to control.
According to the World Health Organization, Vietnam ranks 12th among 30 countries with the highest number of tuberculosis patients globally. At the same time, it ranks 10th among 30 countries with the highest burden of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the world.
Every year, Vietnam has 182,000 new cases of tuberculosis and about 13,000 people die from tuberculosis. The number of tuberculosis patients detected, treated and reported annually in Vietnam only accounts for about 57% of the estimated number of tuberculosis patients (in 2023, 106,086 tuberculosis patients of all types were detected).
"Thus, about 43% of TB patients in the community have not been detected and treated or have been detected/treated but not reported.
The reason is that the community's understanding of tuberculosis is still inadequate. In particular, many people still discriminate against tuberculosis patients. Patients themselves do not see the danger of hiding the disease or delaying late detection, which is spreading the disease to others" - Dr. Dinh Van Luong, Director of the Central Lung Hospital, Head of the Executive Committee of the National Tuberculosis Control Program shared at the conference.
According to Dr. Luong, one of the current difficulties in tuberculosis prevention is that early detection and treatment of tuberculosis for vulnerable groups and people at high risk requires a huge investment of resources.
"One of the notable contents in the new technical guidelines of the Ministry of Health is the application of artificial intelligence Al to support image diagnosis and tuberculosis detection. We hope that the development of technology will help fill the large gap in diagnosing and detecting tuberculosis cases in the community," said Dr. Luong.
Over the past time, projects have supported localities in promoting the transfer of tuberculosis treatment. In particular, the USAID End Tuberculosis Support Project, implemented by FHI 360, supports the tuberculosis program at the national level and in 11 provinces and cities.
"USAID and the National Tuberculosis Control Program will continue to work together to ensure that all levels of the health system have the capacity to reach vulnerable communities and provide high-quality health services to those in need.
The goal is to end TB by 2030 and maintain TB control to reduce TB incidence by 90%, reduce TB mortality by 95% and reduce catastrophic costs for TB patients to zero," said Mr. Luong.
