A medical worker gives advice on TB to residents (Photo: VNA)HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City is expanding the“Proper Care” programme to some other districts in 2017 in an effort toaccelerate the eradication of tuberculosis (TB), said chairman of the city’sPublic Health Association Dr. Le Truong Giang.
Giang told participants at a meeting, which washeld on March 28 in response to World Tuberculosis Day (March 24), that about20,000 new TB cases are reported in HCM City each year.
Apart from the “Proper Care” programme, HCM Citywill also take more measures such as applying new testing techniques to improveTB diagnosis capacity, paying special attention to TB in children to givetreatment and curb transmission, and connecting public and private healthcaresystems in anti-TB activities, he added.
Director of Go Vap district’s preventivemedicine centre Dr. Nguyen Trung Hoa said his centre has piloted the “ProperCare” programme since 2014. This programme aims to increase the detection of TBcases, reduce the abandonment of treatment, raise the success rate of treatment,and improve public awareness of the disease.
After two years, nearly 600,000 people havegained access to the programme with 136,000 of them were screened for TB. Atotal of 565 new cases were detected.
Notably, the rate of TB patients abandoningtreatment has dropped sharply from 7 percent in the past to 0.8 percent atpresent, Hoa said, adding that the widespread network of advisors who meet andgive advice to local residents has become an important link in cutting down thetreatment abandonment rate.
HCM City is striving to reduce the numbers of TBpatients and deaths to below 131 and 10 in every 100,000 residents by 2020,respectively. It also hopes to control the rate of multidrug-resistant TBpatients at below 5 percent of the total new TB cases.-VNA
VNA
