Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam is facing an uphill battle to controltuberculosis (TB), with about 174,000 people in the country contracting thedisease each year and 13,000 fatalities.

According to the World Health Organisation, Vietnam ranked 11th among the 30countries with the biggest burdens of TB in the world.

Director of the Hanoi-based Central Lung Hospital Nguyen Viet Nhung said thatthe number of TB cases in Vietnam was falling slower than expected. 

Nhung, who is also head of the National Programme on TB prevention and Control,blamed the slight decrease of TB cases in Vietnam on ineffective control overmulti-drug-resistant tuberculosis cases.

Other contributors were understaffing, low public awareness on preventing andcontrolling the disease, and a preference for self-treatment.

Most TB patients in Vietnam were poor with a limited understanding of theillness, which resulted in difficulties detecting and avoiding the infectionsource, Nhung said.

Public discrimination against TB patients made the patients tend to hide theirconditions, he said.

“Hiding the disease is irresponsible to the patients themselves and to thecommunity,” Nhung said, adding that it could cause severe consequencesincluding more serious damage to the patients, longer treatment and higher riskof spreading the disease.

“In the fight against TB, each patient is a “soldier” who helps control andprevent the disease from spreading among the community. The community shouldassist them rather than discriminate against them,” Nhung said.

In the last ten years, under the National Programme on TB Prevention andControl, Vietnam has implemented a strategy with four key innovations to fightTB: awareness, technology, approach and investment.

Last year, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc approved the establishment of anational committee to combat TB with the key task of ending TB by 2030.

In the national healthcare system, there are 51 hospitals specialising in TBtreatment across the country. Of them, 48 provincial-level hospitals havemastered techniques recommended by the WHO. 

Nhung said the TB prevention and control network had reached grassroots levelsin wards, hamlets and villages to deliver early detection and treatment.

Groups that are vulnerable to TB like prisoners, those with diabetes, HIV ordrug addicts had been involved in a pilot programme for early intervention.

Vietnam had been strengthening research and improving its legal framework torealise its goal of ending TB.

At a meeting last week ahead of World TB Day that falls on March 24, DeputyPrime Minister Vu Duc Dam asked the Ministry of Health and agencies to developplans to provide sufficient funding for TB prevention and control to reach the2030 target.

The Deputy PM also asked for further communication to improve publicunderstanding of the disease.

“TB is a communicable disease but we don’t need to fear it. TB is no longeruncurable because now, we have strengthened our financial ability and moderntechnology to test and treat it,” he said./.