Geneva (VNA) – Vietnam is one of theleading countries in the world in implementing the End TB Strategy of the WorldHealth Organisation (WHO), according to Director of the WHO’s GlobalTuberculosis (TB) Programme Tereza Kasaeva.

She made the evaluation at a meeting with theVietnamese delegation led by Deputy Health Minister Le Quang Cuong on thesidelines of the 71st World Health Assembly (WHA) held in Geneva, Switzerland,from May 21-26.

The Director lauded Vietnam for applying quicklyand effectively new technologies to fight tuberculosis in a short span of time.

She recgonised Vietnam as an example inimplementing the WHO’s strategy to end the global TB epidemic.

Vietnam has also been realising contents in theMoscow Declaration to End TB adopted at the first WHO Global MinisterialConference in Russia in November 2017.

WHO also appreciated the country’s sharing of itsexperience in fighting TB, such as its hosting of a policy dialogue onaccelerating actions to prevent TB and multi-drug-resistant TB in theAsia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) region in August 2017.

WHO recognised the contributions of Director of theCentral Lung Hospital Nguyen Viet Nhung, Manager of the National TB ControlProgramme, for his active participation in strategic advisory councils,guidelines development and research orientations of the WHO for many years.

The organisation asked the Vietnamese governmentand Ministry of Health to attend the first-ever high-level meeting of theUnited Nations on ending TB slated for New York in September this year.

TB remains the leading cause of fatality in theworld, leading to the deaths of nearly 2 million people every year,particularly drug-resistant TB has threatened global health.

In Vietnam,the WHO estimates that there are nearly 130,000 new cases of TB diagnosed eachyear, resulting in some 16,000 deaths in the Southeast Asian country in 2015.

Vietnam ranked 16h among 30 countries with thehighest number of TB patients globally. It also ranked 13th among 30 countrieswith the biggest burden of multi drug-resistant TB in the world. 

The country is a leading nation in terms of TBprevention efforts. The rate of successful treatment for multi drug resistantTB in Vietnam is over 70 percent, much higher than the world’s rate of 54percent.

Thanks to early detection and effectivetreatment, TB-related deaths reduced 3,000 cases during 2015-2016. The countryhas set a target to cut 30 percent of TB infection cases and 40 percent of TBdeaths during 2015-2020.-VNA