Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha chaired the Conference (Photo binhphu.vn)

Reduce the burden of tuberculosis on the health sector

On the morning of April 8, chairing the online conference on summarizing TB prevention and control in 2023 and task implemention in 2024, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, Chairman of the National Committee to End Tuberculosis, it is recommended that relevant ministries and branches at all levels have feasible solutions and policies to respond drastically to TB prevention and control, to reduce the cost of TB treatment and reduce the burden on the health sector.

In particular, the Ministry of Health will soon complete the processes, procedures, plans, authority... to conduct a nationwide investigation of the National Tuberculosis Program, to deploy it nationwide by 2025. Continue to mobilize the whole community's response to TB prevention and control; promoting international cooperation, transferring rapid testing technology combined with traditional medicine; Developing applications (app) for tuberculosis patients...

Regarding financial resources, the Deputy Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Health to urgently research methods, technical regulations, unit prices for detection, testing, treatment regimens... to serve as a basis for health insurance payments, or set aside from State budget, mobilize social resources for activities under the TB prevention and control program.

"The Ministry of Health coordinates with Vietnam Social Security and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to research plans to pay for testing costs to detect tuberculosis, as well as cover health insurance for all tuberculosis patients. Centralized bidding must be carried out to ensure ensure there is enough medicine, supplies, and medical equipment for tuberculosis prevention and control," said the Deputy Prime Minister.

Reporting at the meeting, Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan said that the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that in 2022, Vietnam will have an additional 172,000 people newly infected with tuberculosis and about 13,000 people died from tuberculosis and standing, ranking the 11th among the 30 countries with the highest number of tuberculosis and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis globally. The epidemiological situation of tuberculosis in Vietnam is still very complicated, especially after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of TB patients detected, treated and reported each year only accounts for about 60% of the estimated number of TB patients. The rate of completely cured tuberculosis patients is over 90%, drug-resistant tuberculosis is 75%.

Notably, currently, about 40% of latent TB cases in the community have not been detected, along with 2% of drug-resistant TB patients, which is the main cause of spread in the community. Nearly 30% of Vietnamese people are exposed to tuberculosis bacteria.

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha spoke at the Conference (Photo chinphu.vn)

Difficulties in preventing and fighting tuberculosis

Currently, the Vietnam National Tuberculosis Program is implementing comprehensive interventions to enhance early detection, especially in high-risk groups (prisoners, elderly, children, people with HIV inffection); Apply for advanced techniques, treatment regimens, and the latest medications.

Regarding some difficulties in tuberculosis prevention and control, Director of the Central Lung Hospital Dinh Van Luong said that 12/63 provinces and cities do not have tuberculosis and lung disease hospitals, leading to a lack of specialized personnel to implement tuberculosis prevention interventions. Meanwhile, the district health model is not uniform in 63 localities, causing difficulties in paying for tuberculosis drugs and tuberculosis examination services from health insurance.

There is a shortage of medical staff specialized in TB prevention and control, and policies are limited. International aid funding for TB prevention and control activities tends to decrease while local budgets for this activity are still limited.

The People's awareness of tuberculosis has made progress but is still misleading and incomplete. Most patients are poor, stigma and inferiority complex is still remained...

According to Prof. Dr. Dinh Ngoc Sy, former Director of the Central Lung Hospital, if only current TB prevention and control activities are optimized, universal health coverage and social protection are implemented, the rate of new TB infected cases  will be reduced but cannot achieve the set goals under control and toward ending tuberculosis in Vietnam.

Prof. Dr. Dinh Ngoc Sy said that it is necessary to break the regular epidemiological "trajectory" of tuberculosis through promoting research and application of science and technology, synchronously applying new vaccines, new drugs, and treatment regimens. new treatment.