The 8th annual general conference on Countermeasures to Combat Infectious Diseases in Asia of the Asian Network of Major Cities 21 (ANMC 21) was held in Hanoi on October 30 to discuss countermeasures to combat infectious diseases in Asia, and was attended by representatives of ANMC 21’s 13 nations.
At the meeting, Nguyen Tran Hien, president of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, said that public healthcare is a matter of grave concern to Vietnam especially with the recurrence of dengue fever, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, encephalitis, diarrhea, measles and rabies.
Hien said that in the last 10 years, the health sector had made a concerted effort to combat infectious diseases.
Accordingly, these diseases are decreasing, yet some of them including dengue fever, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, encephalitis, diarrhea, measles and rabies have re-emerged recently.
Vietnam has hence pushed for supervision and prevention in disease-prone areas and strengthened coordination between preventive missions and treatment. The health sector also reminds parents to vaccinate children so as to eliminate diseases such as measles and rabies.
The annual meeting was a chance for big cities to exchange experiences in combating contagious diseases and present countermeasures to be taken.
Another meeting on October 29 was attended by more than 300 local and international doctors.
They discussed the latest survey in 48 provinces of the country, of around 1,356 million people or 2.2 percent of the adult population, who are suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Among them, 4.2 percent are smokers, 2.7 percent of them are resistant to drugs for tuberculosis and 19 percent required re-treatment.
