Over 40% of Tuberculosis Patients Remain Undiagnosed, Untreated in Vietnam

Only 60% of tuberculosis (TB) patients or 100,000 cases are detected annually in Vietnam, which left over 40% of TB patients undiagnosed and untreated within the community, representatives from the National Lung Hospital told the press on the occasion of the World Tuberculosis Day on March 24.

Over the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, TB prevention and control efforts in Vietnam have been severely affected, they rated, noting the number of TB patients detected in 2021 decreased by 22% compared to 2020 and by 24.5% compared to 2019, making Vietnam one of the countries with the highest decline in TB detection globally due to the pandemic's impact.

To achieve the goal of ending TB in Vietnam by 2035, the TB control program needs to optimize existing strategies and policies, including universal health coverage, and strengthen the role of grassroots healthcare systems in TB prevention and control, health insurance, and social welfare, they suggested.

They also highlighted a need to rapidly expand the implementation of new diagnostic tools, medications, vaccines, and interventions to detect and treat TB early to interrupt transmission, and to treat latent TB to prevent progression to active disease.

According to the World Health Organization's global TB report for 2023, Vietnam still bears a high burden of TB, ranking 11th among the top 30 countries with the highest TB burden globally, and ranking 11th among the top 30 countries with the highest burden of multidrug-resistant TB.

In 2023, Vietnam was estimated to have an additional 172,000 TB cases and about 13,000 TB-related deaths, surpassing the number of deaths from traffic accidents. Drug-resistant TB was estimated to account for 4.5% of new TB patients and 15% of previously treated patients, while TB-HIV coinfection was estimated to account for 2.5% of detected TB patients.

(Suc Khoe Doi Song, Tuoi Tre, yte.nghean.gov.vn, benhvienphoitrunguong.vn, Lao Dong)