International Assistance Has Facilitated TB Control in Vietnam, National Control Program Board Says

Assistance from international donors has contributed significantly to tuberculosis control in Vietnam over the past few years, according to the management board of the National Tuberculosis Control Program, the Vietnam News Agency/Antara News reports. At a conference on Thursday in Hanoi, Vietnam, to review the progress of the program after 20 years, the management board said sound policies and increased government funding have spurred international governments and nongovernmental organizations to support Vietnam's efforts to eradicate the disease. CDC, the Netherlands, the World Bank and the World Health Organization provided tens of millions of dollars to help control TB in Vietnam between 1994 and 2004, according to the Vietnam News Agency/Antara News. In addition, Japan and South Korea have helped Vietnam to train health workers to care for TB patients and conduct tests. Japan also has provided at no cost medical equipment to several provincial and central TB hospitals to improve the quality of diagnosis. By 1997, Vietnam had achieved a national TB detection rate of more than 70% and a treatment success rate of 85%, according to WHO. The NTCP also has helped reduce by 6% TB incidence and has curbed the disease among middle-aged and elderly people, the Vietnam News Agency/Antara News reports. Challenges facing the program include drug resistance, TB/HIV coinfection, reaching poor people and ethnic minorities and securing more funding (Vietnam News Agency/Antara News, 7/27). According to the Ministry of Health, funding from the Netherlands and the World Bank will end in 2007, and Vietnam needs about $16 million to reach the projected $49 million required for the NTCP to continue through 2010 (Vietnam News Brief Service, 7/28). Vietnam has the 13th highest TB burden in the world, with 221,000 recorded patients and about 145,000 new cases annually, 70% of which occur among people of working age (GlobalHealthReporting.org, 7/3).