Hanoi (VNA) - The diagnosis of tuberculosis at grassroots-levelhealthcare facilities plays an important role in the fight against tuberculosisas Vietnam stands at high risk of tuberculosis outbreaks.

Dinh Van Luong, Director of the National Lung Hospital and head ofthe Executive Board of the Vietnam Tuberculosis Prevention and Control Project,said grassroots-level healthcare facilities are a competent, responsible, anddedicated force protecting the community against the disease.

Assessing the COVID-19 impact on tuberculosis prevention andcontrol, he said the pandemic delayed by five to eight years the provision ofessential TB services and increasing the global TB burden.

“Vietnam is still a country with a high tuberculosis burden,ranking 11th among the 30 countries with the highest proportion of tuberculosispatients and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the world, according to WorldHealth Organization’s Global TB Report 2023,” he told the Vietnam News Agency.

During the pandemic, Vietnam’s TB fight faced challenges with theover 20% decline in the number of infections detected in the community in 2021compared to 2019 and 2020.

This put Vietnam on the list of countries with the highest rate ofreduction in tuberculosis detection in the world due to the impact of thepandemic.

The TB death rate in Vietnam has been also on the rise, reaching12,000 people in 2021, an increase of 35.8% compared to 2020.

The National Tuberculosis Prevention and Control Programme hasstrived to launch the TB prevention task at all communes and wards across thecountry, with 100% of the population getting access to the programme.

Fifty-one out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide haveestablished lung and tuberculosis hospitals.

The programme has expanded cooperation with partners such as theMinistry of Public Security, Department of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Controlunder the Ministry of Health, World Health Organization, KNCV TuberculosisFoundation, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as centraland provincial general hospitals.

Local authorities have committed to implementing the model of TBdetection in the community.

Everyone who has a health check-up at community medical facilitieswill have TB screening and check-up for other lung diseases, high bloodpressure and diabetes.

Thanks to that effort, in the first nine months of 2023, the totalnumber of TB patients detected by public and private healthcare facilitiesreached 26,300 patients, accounting for 33.4% of total patients.

This has demonstrated the efficiency of grassroots TB detection, Luongsaid.

The official said the medical sector needs to strengthen TBdiagnosis at the community level, focusing on high-risk groups to early detectand treat TB, looking towards ending the infection source in the community, andsoon ending the epidemic.

In 2023, one of the most outstanding achievements in the fightagainst TB in Vietnam was the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) inthe disease diagnosis.

The application of AI will facilitate the detection of tuberculosis,especially cases that are easily missed or difficult to reach, Luong said.

The medical sector has also stepped up TB detection in thecommunity and at healthcare facilities by applying X-ray and Xpert testing fordiagnosis.

Thanks to active participation of the community level healthcaresystem, in the first nine months of 2023, the National Tuberculosis Preventionand Control Programme detected 78,674 cases, a year-on-year increase of 1,909cases.

Detection of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis during this periodalso rose by 44% compared to the same period in 2021./.