Dr. Dinh Ngoc Sy, Director of the Central Hospital for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, claims that medical workers were worried about Vietnam having over 180,000 tuberculosis patients each year.
Added to this is the fact that more than five percent of these TB patients test positive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Moreover, nearly 6,000 people have multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis and over 20,000 tuberculosis-related deaths are reported each year within the country. Vietnam is ranked as 12 out of 22 countries that have the highest number of tuberculosis patients in the world, according to a recent survey of the Anti-Tuberculosis Prevention Program.
Dr. Sy said that the number of people with multi drug resistant tuberculosis is on the rise because many quit treatment midway or do not follow recommended dosage.
