Hanoi (VNA) – The health sector’s national target programmes between 2011-2015 helped raise public awareness of the importance of individual and community health care, curbing ꦇthe number of patients and deaths caused by dangerous diseases and preventing epidemics, heard a conference in Hanoi on April 13.

Head of the Health Ministry's Planning and Finance Department Nguyen Nam Lien said the ministry was assigned four programmes targeting health care, ensuring food safety, population and family planning, and HIV/AIDS prevention. Notably, the National Health Target Programme was implemented through five projects, with satisfactory results recorded in the project for preventing some dangerous diseases. During the period, the health sector completed its goal to reduce the rate of people suffering from dengue fever to 18 percent of dengue cases for 100,000 people compared to 2006-2010, and keep the rate of dengue sufferers and deaths by the disease at under 0.09 percent. Screening examinations and management for high-blood pressure patients was deployed in 1,179 communes and wards nationwide, benefiting over 2 million people. Over 365,000 people were found to be suffering from the disease and received advice from medical units. The expanded vaccination project ensured over 90 percent of children under one year old were fully vaccinated , meanwhile the rate of children between 1-14 who received the measles-rubella vaccine reached 98.2 percent. Efforts to eliminate polio and neonatal tetanus were also promoted. Positive results were also recorded in the National Target Programme on Food Safety, with food safety management agencies formed from the central to local level. Reports delivered at the conference showed that the National Target Programme on Population and Family Planning contributed to improving the quality of service delivery. The service was provided for people in 5,700 disadvantaged communes with high birth rates. Meanwhile, the National Target Programme on HIV/AIDS Prevention helped control the rate of HIV/AIDS injections in the community at less than 0.3 percent. The network of medial establishments for preventing HIV/AIDS nationwide has been strengthened, and the budget of localities for the work increased nearly threefold compared to 2013, after a project on ensuring finance for the field was approved by the Prime Minister. According to Lien, a health and population target programme will be implemented between 2016-2020 with eight projects – focusing on preventing some dangerous infectious diseases and some common non-contagious diseases, expanding vaccination campaigns, ensuring blood safety and preventing hematological pathologies, promoting medical and population communication, and enhancing links between army and civil medical establishments, among others. The programme will run across the country, with the aim of mobilising resources and involvement of agencies, organisations and the people, and arranging communication campaigns, and disease control and training activities.-VNA