Primary Health Care

Vietnam’s medical sector is grossly understaffed and lacking sufficient resources to treat senior citizens in need of healthcare, said Medical Management Board Deputy Head Luong Ngoc Khue.
Khue estimated that Vietnam’s 8.12 million elderly citizens, or 9.45 percent of the nation’s population, have some 2.69 diseases each on average. Among the 8-millionstrong elderly citizens, 70 percent of them are in need of healthcare.
He said that neither the 1,049 geriatric staff nor the country’s 28 geriatric departments were nearly enough to attend to the country’s elderly population. The official did not provide a specific percentage of the elderly who receive healthcare.

Health workers in the country are at serious risk of contracting the hepatitis B virus due to exposure to blood and body fluids and lack of knowledge on safety measures.
A seminar focusing on hepatitis B and liver cancer prevention in HCM City this week highlighted the problem for health workers.
About 17.6 percent of them may be exposed to the hepatitis B virus, the disease that can cause a host of effects, including possible complications of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer, warns Doctor Huynh Tan Tien, director of the Labour Health and Environmental Protection Centre.

About 120 to 150 children a day were diagnosed with acute diarrhoea at Ha Noi’s Central Paediatric Hospital during last week’s cold spell.Other of the capital’s hospitals with paediatric wards, including Saint Paul, Bach Mai, also reported a higher number of children with acute diarrhoea.
Pro-longed cold causes bouts of "winter" diarrhoea among children in northern Viet Nam, explains Central Paediatrics Hospital deputy director Le Thanh Hai.
It is common among children and not dangerous if quickly treated in accordance with the Health Ministry’s instructions.
"The virus-caused disease in children is different from the bacteria-positive acute diarrhoea that occurs in northern provinces," he says.

Spoiled cakes are the suspected cause of a food poisoning outbreak that put hundreds of students at a Ho Chi Minh City secondary school in hospital this week, health officials said Tuesday. "Four hundred seventy children were hospitalized due to the food poisoning on Monday," said Le Truong Giang of the Ho Chi Minh Department of Health. "A preliminary investigation shows the cakes the children ate may be the cause."
The children were sent to Ho Chi Minh City hospitals Monday afternoon, a few hours after eating a school lunch of fried squid, cakes and milk.
They were suffering from headaches, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, according to Dr Nguyen Thi Thanh Minh of Ho Chi Minh Children's Hospital Number 2.

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The World Health Organization said Monday that Vietnam's mandatory helmet law helped save more than 1,000 lives since it was introduced a year ago but that more loopholes need to be fixed.
Monday marked exactly one year since the government required all motorcyclists to wear helmets.
There were 1,400 fewer road traffic fatalities and 2,200 fewer serious injuries in the year ending October 2008 compared to the same period a year previous, the WHO said, citing a report by the National Traffic Safety Committee.
Nearly 13,000 road deaths were recorded last year, one of the world's highest rates per 100,000 with the majority of accidents involving the ubiquitous motorbike, which is the country's main mode of transportation.

Available online at: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12506

The Institute of Medicine-with the support of four U.S. government agencies and five private foundations-formed an independent committee to examine the United States' commitment to global health and to articulate a vision for future U.S. investments and activities in this area.

Ho Chi Minh City has so far this year recorded nearly 14,000 cases of dengue fever or a 35 percent year-on-year increase, a senior city health official has said.
Dr. Nguyen Dac Tho, deputy director of the city’s Preventive Health Center was addressing a meeting on preventing and fighting epidemics held Wednesday.
He said while the city has managed to control somewhat the spread of the mosquito-borne fever, the situation remained complicated.
Districts 6, 8, 10, 11, Tan Binh and Tan Phu are still the worst-hit areas.
Tho also cautioned district health agencies against ignoring malaria as a threat, noting a patient had recently died because it was discovered too late.

Available online PDF file [224p] at:
http://www.who.int/mental_health/policy/Mental%20health%20+%20primary%20care-%20final%20low-res%20140908.pdf

The delegation was in the US to raise awareness of their campaign for compensation for the damage caused by Agent Orange, a toxic herbicide used by the US army in the Vietnam War.
The Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA) has filed a suit in the US Supreme Court as it continues its campaign for compensation from US chemical companies. Previous lawsuits filed in the US Appeal Court and the US Hearing Court were unsuccessful.
Delegation leader Dang Hong Nhat said the group visited 10 cities in eight states in the US, holding public meetings and seminars and conducting media interviews.
The delegation met with politicians, students, businessmen, religious leaders, lawyers and medical professionals.