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Submitted by ctv_en_4 on Sat, 07/01/2006 - 14:35
The National Tuberculosis Control Programme in Vietnam is considered one of the most effective schemes to eliminate the disease in developing countries, said health officials at a five-day TB conference in Hanoi.

The programme discovered and provided treatment for nearly 97,000 TB patients in 2005, a fall of 3.8 percent compared to the previous year. More than 90 percent of the new TB patients recovered after treatment.  

However, the programme still faces challenges in fighting TB in remote areas, particularly because of the spread of HIV/AIDS and TB’s increasing resistance to existing medication, said Nguyen Duc Duong, vice director of the National Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, at the conference, which ended on June 30.

Mr Duong said Vietnam still lacks 12.9 million euros out of the projected 38.2 million euros needed for the programme.

In the 2006-2010 period, the State budget can contribute about 9.4 million euros, while the Dutch government and the Global Fund for TB Prevention committed a total of more than 15.9 million euros to the programme.

Mario Taguiwalo, team leader of the programme review, suggested that the programme should urgently secure funding and drugs supply for the 2006-2010 period. He said the programme is imperative for successfully combating TB and very demanding on management. Its success requires stronger and broader political commitment and modification by the Government and its partners on financial support.

The Government has described the anti-TB activity as one of the 10 national programmes to prevent social and dangerous diseases.

Vietnam
now has about 221,000 TB patients, ranking 13th among 22 countries in the world with the highest incidence of the disease. About 145,000 new TB cases are reported each year and 70 percent of TB patients are of working age ranging from 15 to 55.

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