Vietnam to Focus on Developing Grassroots Healthcare in 2016-2020: Minister

Vietnam will focus on developing grassroots healthcare units to prevent non-infectious diseases, as part of the health-population target program for 2016-2020, said Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien. Minister Tien made the instruction at a conference in Ho Chi Minh City on April 16 to review the three-year implementation of the program. Under the program, the country has maintained a vaccination rate of more than 95% for children under one year old and pregnant women. The malnutrition rate among children dropped to 13% in 2018 from 17.5% in 2010. The proportion of HIV/AIDS in the community has been kept at 0.3% with fewer number of new infection cases. However, Ms. Tien pointed to the increasing threat of non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer as new challenge for the program. Meanwhile, financial resources for the program, which rely on the state budget, are limited. In the next two years, the ministry will continue carrying out the program, paying attention to training and inspection of professional activities at grassroots health facilities, and communication campaigns to raise the public awareness of the need to exercise and early detect chronic diseases. (Bao Chinh Phu, Lao Dong, SGGP, doisongphapluat, VOH)