Ha Noi accelerates efforts to reduce new tuberculosis cases

Under Ha Noi's tuberculosis (TB) prevention program, which has been implemented in all districts, the city has held a series of communication activities in response to World TB Day on March 24.

So far, it has secured the coordination of about 80 percent of public health facilities and 30 percent of non-public health facilities in the city.

In 2024, Ha Noi aims to rapidly reduce the rate of new TB acquisition, bring down the number of people with TB in the community to less than 45 per 100,000 people, and lower the TB death rate to less than 4 per 100,000 people. The city also strives to maintain the TB prevention and control network throughout the city.

On average, more than 4,000 non-drug-resistant TB patients are treated annually in Ha Noi's TB prevention program. The program helped detect and treat nearly 1,000 TB cases of all types in the first three months of the year.

With 4,057 TB cases of all types detected in 2023, Ha Noi's TB epidemiology is at the average level of the northern region (51/100,000 population).

In 2023, Ha Noi Lung Hospital increased the screening, detection and admission of TB patients.

In recent years, the number of TB patients counseled to test for HIV has reached 3,941, accounting for 97.1 percent. The number of TB/HIV patients is 103 people, accounting for 2.6 percent. There were 100 persons receiving both TB and ARV treatment, representing 97.3 percent.

Ha Noi has achieved the targets set in the National Strategy for TB Prevention and Control by 2020 with a vision of 2030, with 80 percent of new TB cases detected and 92 percent of detected patients cured.

The positive results are attributed to Ha Noi's extensive anti-TB network in all districts and the use of modern techniques to quickly and effectively treat diagnosed cases. Attention has also been paid to promoting communication to raise public awareness about the dangers of TB.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the world's leading causes of death, killing nearly 2 million people each year, with drug-resistant TB threatening global health.

According to the World Health Organization's Global Tuberculosis Report 2023, Viet Nam's TB burden remains high. The country has risen from 16th to 11th among countries with the most TB patients in the world, and also ranks 11th among 30 countries for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

Speaking at the World TB Day commemoration on March 22 in Ha Noi, Dinh Van Luong, Director of the Central Lung Hospital, said that the number of TB patients detected annually in Viet Nam is only about 60 percent of the estimated total, meaning that more than 40 percent of TB patients in the community remain undetected and untreated.

Luong highlighted the complexity of TB trends in Viet Nam, citing a slow decline rate and inadequate investment in TB control efforts, which increases the risk of community outbreaks./.