Thanks to a national tuberculosis preventive programme, atuberculosis-infected man in Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Phu district is notafraid that he will transmit the disease to his infant son.
The man, who asked not to be named, had exclaimed earlier to doctorsin his district clinic: "How worrying! I am afraid of giving the diseaseto my nine-month-old son. What can I do to prevent transmission?"
They offered to put his son through the national programme forchildren under five, which has been underway in the city since late2013.
Under the programme, children whose relativeshave TB are encouraged to get tested, Nguyen Hong Nguyen, the clinic'sdeputy head, said. If the tests prove negative for TB germs, they aregiven free Isoniazid, an antibiotic used both to treat and prevent TB,to drink every day for six months to prevent TB, he said.
The children in the programme are monitored for side effects andexamined every month, Nguyen said, assuring that the drug does not haveside effects.
The World HealthOrganisation estimated in 2013 that globally, up to 80,000 children dieof TB and over half a million are infected each year.
In Vietnam, nearly 180,000 new cases, including 18,000 children, are found and treated every year.
Dang Minh Sang, head of the National Tuberculosis Control Division,told a recent conference that children accounted for a mere around 2percent of the cases only because TB was difficult to diagnose inchildren due to a shortage of equipment.
In Vietnam, the diagnosis is based on sputum tests, and obtaining children's sputum is very difficult, he said.
According to the US's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,children can develop TB at any age, but the most severe forms are mostcommon between one and four years of age.
Childrencan get TB immediately after being infected or can get the disease atany time later in life. They can even infect their own children, decadeslater, if not treated.
District TB clinics andreproductive and child health centres provide the public withinformation about the programme, he said.
By the endof the first quarter this year, 62 percent of all children in the citywho were in close contact with TB patients were attending the programme,he said.-VNA
The man, who asked not to be named, had exclaimed earlier to doctorsin his district clinic: "How worrying! I am afraid of giving the diseaseto my nine-month-old son. What can I do to prevent transmission?"
They offered to put his son through the national programme forchildren under five, which has been underway in the city since late2013.
Under the programme, children whose relativeshave TB are encouraged to get tested, Nguyen Hong Nguyen, the clinic'sdeputy head, said. If the tests prove negative for TB germs, they aregiven free Isoniazid, an antibiotic used both to treat and prevent TB,to drink every day for six months to prevent TB, he said.
The children in the programme are monitored for side effects andexamined every month, Nguyen said, assuring that the drug does not haveside effects.
The World HealthOrganisation estimated in 2013 that globally, up to 80,000 children dieof TB and over half a million are infected each year.
In Vietnam, nearly 180,000 new cases, including 18,000 children, are found and treated every year.
Dang Minh Sang, head of the National Tuberculosis Control Division,told a recent conference that children accounted for a mere around 2percent of the cases only because TB was difficult to diagnose inchildren due to a shortage of equipment.
In Vietnam, the diagnosis is based on sputum tests, and obtaining children's sputum is very difficult, he said.
According to the US's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,children can develop TB at any age, but the most severe forms are mostcommon between one and four years of age.
Childrencan get TB immediately after being infected or can get the disease atany time later in life. They can even infect their own children, decadeslater, if not treated.
District TB clinics andreproductive and child health centres provide the public withinformation about the programme, he said.
By the endof the first quarter this year, 62 percent of all children in the citywho were in close contact with TB patients were attending the programme,he said.-VNA
