Health

Three new infirmaries include the General Hospital Thu Duc, the General Hospital Hoc Mon and the General Hospital Cu Chi. Spending on the infirmaries will be taken from the city budget to improve healthcare services for city dwellers. Director of the Department of Health Nguyen Tan Binh said the construction project of three hospitals is one of the health sector’s six major projects from now to 2020 with the vision to 2030. Six major projects include to build five hospitals: City Children Hospital, Tumor Hospital, the General Hospital Hoc Mon, Cu Chi, Thu Duc, and Pham Ngoc Thach Medicine University Hospital. Amongst hospitals, only City Children Hospital was put into operation in 2017 and the Tumor Hospital will be put in use in 2019. Around VND1,915 billion will be spent on Thu Duc general Hospital while VND1,895 billion and VND1,854 billion will be for building the General Hospital Hoc Mon and Cu Chi respectively. The three 1,000-bed hospitals will be equipped with modern … [Read more...] about Vietnam to invest over $240 million in three 1,000-bed hospitals

At the launch of the campaign, a representative of MoH called for people, especially parents to actively adopt measures against the three diseases. Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said that as diseases are developing unpredictably in the world and the region including outbreaks of hand-foot-mouth in the west of Pacific in 2017 and continued outbreaks in 2018.  Dengue plagues annually in the Southeast Asia region while measles is reported in 181/194 nations and territories including European countries which announced they are free from measles.  Low vaccination resulted in reoccurrence of measles in European countries. The cases of hand-foot-mouth, dengue  saw a year-on-year drop by 18.9 percent and 53.6 percent respectively in the Southeast Asian country in 2018. Worse, from 2013 to 2017, infection cases of contagious diseases such as rabies, whooping cough, malaria and diphtheria have been reported with low rate than other nations in the Asia. However, … [Read more...] about Health Ministry calls for people participation in fighting measles, HFM, dengue

However, there have been some hiccups along the way. According to the World Health Organization, tuberculosis ranks the ninth cause of deaths in the world. The Southeast Asian country has the burden of tuberculosis; in 2017, the country had 126,000 tuberculosis infections and over 13,000 people died of the disease. Vietnam was ranked 12th among the tuberculosis drug-resistance high-burden countries, with a prevalence of smear-positive tuberculosis of 89 per 100 000 population. HCMC is one of localities with high tuberculosis infection cases with annual fresh cases making for 15 percent of the whole country’s total cases. Twenty percent of them are immigrants. The city is also the place with high number of multi-drug resistance tuberculosis cases. Director of Pham Ngoc Thach Hospital cum head of the anti-tuberculosis program Dr. Nguyen Huu Lan said that project “For a Vietnam without tuberculosis case” is being piloted in the city to enhance capacity of discovering … [Read more...] about Vietnam faces challenges in tackling tuberculosis

Participants at the innauguration ceremony (Source: VNA) HCM City (VNA) - A health examination centre was put into operation at Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City on October 14 as part of activities to mark the 45th anniversary of Vietnam-Japan diplomatic ties. The inauguration ceremony, which was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh, was jointly held by the Cho Ray Hospital and Japan’s International University of Health and Welfare. Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Truong Son, Director of the Cho Ray Hospital said the centre will provide high-quality health check-ups, meeting the demand of local residents. Results collected by the centre can help detect implicit diseases and health risks, which will serve in-depth health examinations and monitoring, and prevention of diseases and health improvement; and contribute to reducing overload in the Cho Ray Hospital. With a team of doctors and medical staff trained in Japan and a modern medical equipment system, … [Read more...] about Vietnam-Japan health examination centre inaugurated in HCM City

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien (purple shirt) inspects measles vaccine injection (Source: VNA) HCM City (VNA) - Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien has asked hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City to detect, classify and isolate patients with measles, dengue fever or hand-foot-mouth (HFM) disease to avoid cross-contamination. Tien made the request at the launching ceremony of a campaign in HCM City on October 12 to prevent possible outbreaks during the peak season for these infections. The campaign, jointly kicked off by the Ministry of Health and the municipal People’s Committee, aims to mobilise the entire healthcare system and community. The minister called on local hospitals to strengthen preventive measures to control the spread of disease. She also asked media to provide information about preventive measures to raise awareness about those diseases among the community. The campaign is urging everyone to wash … [Read more...] about Campaign launched in HCM City to prevent measles, HFM outbreak

About 6,500 free tests for hepatitis B virus (HBV) are being offered to residents in Hanoi and neighbouring areas (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - The National Hospital of Tropical Diseases is offering 6,500 free hepatitis B virus (HBV) tests for people living in Hanoi and neighbouring provinces. The HBV tests, including 6,200 HBsAg (hepatitis B surface antigen) and 3000 HBV DNA tests are part of an action plan for early diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis that the hospital has carried out in response to the global campaign to eliminate HBV by 2030. Dr Nguyen Van Kinh, general director of the hospital, said that all tests would be done with modern technologies. Early diagnosis is important to protect individuals as well as the community, he said, adding that the programme corresponds to the Ministry of Health’s programme to eliminate HBV during the 2015-19 period. People can take the free test (worth 111,000 VND), and if they test positive for HBsAG, will … [Read more...] about People in Hanoi get free HBV tests

The ceremony to start the construction of the Xuyen A-Tay Ninh hospital on October 10 (Photo: VNA) Tay Ninh (VNA) – The construction of a general hospital with 1,000 beds began in Go Dau district, the southern province of Tay Ninh, on October 10. Invested with 1.25 trillion VND (53.5 million USD), the Xuyen A-Tay Ninh hospital will cover 41,000 sq.m in Thanh Phuoc commune. In the first phase, a 10-storey building and supporting facilities will be built and put into use by 2020. A centre for cardiology and neurology will be constructed in the second phase. This is the fourth in a network of Xuyen A hospitals invested by the Xuyen A Hospital Investment JSC. When operational, the hospital will have 25 clinical and paraclinical departments, as well as 18 global-standard operating rooms. It will be able to serve 2,000-3,000 outpatients and 1,000 inpatients each day. With cutting-edge technology and high-quality personnel, it is expected to become one of the most … [Read more...] about Tay Ninh: New hospital to boost poor people’ access to quality health care

As per the document, the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment ordered infirmary managers to instruct its staff to spread information of the disease to patients and relatives, interns. Additionally, infirmaries warned measles patients must wear facemask when waiting to see doctors at hospitals. For kids, parents must keep a handkerchief on their kids’ nose and mouth when coughing and sneezing. Parents of hand-foot-mouth kid patient must wash their hands when taking care of kids and dengue patients must sleep in mosquito-nets. Importantly, infirmaries must isolate patients and set up separated wards for measles patients and hand-foot-mouth patients. Hospitals will admit serious cases of measles, dengue and hand-foot-mouth as well as provide consultation to slight patient relatives at home to cut treatment cost and prevent cross-infection and patient overload. Infirmaries must prepare drugs and equipment as per the Ministry of Health. Besides, they must follow treatment … [Read more...] about Medical facilities urgded to isolate patients to prevent cross-infection

The Ministry of Health said that from October 20, the edict 115/2018 of administrative fines on food safety will officially take effect. According to the new edict, violators will pay higher fines especially in selling unsafe street food. Specifically, street food sellers will pay VND500,000 -VND1 million ($21.4 -442.8) (the old level ranging from VND300,000 to VND500,000) if they do not practice hygienic method of covering food and water; food not covered is exposed to flies, birds, rodents and such which may cause food borne pathogens. Those who have no portable booth, food cart or truck will also face same fines. Moreover, street food vendors will face a fine of VND1-3 million for lacking proper food handling and waste disposal training, or using unsafe water and equipment for cooking. Additionally, the regulations say that sick street food peddlers will receive the fines if they directly make food for people. Plus, street food hawkers will receive same fines if they use banned … [Read more...] about Street food sellers to be fined million dong for falling foul of regulation

Illustrative photo (Source: VNA) Da Nang (VNA) – New technologies in the treatment, screening and early detection of cancer were updated at the Vietnam Cancer Patient Forum 2018 held by the Salt Cancer Initiative (SCI) in Da Nang city on October 8. Leading experts in the oncology sector of Vietnam and the United States also introduced cancer patients and their relatives to the similarities and differences between the two countries’ regimens in cancer treatment, nutrition for people with cancer, measures to prevent cancer, and diseases caused by cancer. Sharing the importance of the early detection of cancer, doctor Pham Nguyen Quy from the Oncology Department under Japan’s Kyoto University Hospital said that from 50 to 70 percent of cases detecting cancer via screening are at an early stage with the recovery ability of 90-100 percent. Meanwhile, 65-70 percent of cancer detected during normal health check-ups are at the last stage with the recovery ability of 20-30 … [Read more...] about Knowledge about cancer and treatment updated