Over the past years, the tuberculosis control program in Khanh Hoa Province has proved with satisfactory results...
Over the past years, the tuberculosis control program in Khanh Hoa Province has proved effective with satisfactory results. Drug-resistant tuberculosis patients have been well managed; the recovery rate among treated cases has reached to 95.8%; and deaths have been reported to decrease to 2.2%.
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| Medical examination at Khanh Hoa Tuberculosis & Lung Diseases Hospital. |
In 2016, Khanh Hoa Tuberculosis & Lung Diseases Hospital organized many tuberculosis prevention and control activities. The hospital provided treatment for nearly 81,490 patient arrivals, 122.5% of whom (over 1,399 patients) were new tuberculosis cases. More than 1,306 tuberculoses patients were reported to recover from the disease, achieving 95.8%, up 3.5% compared with the year 2015; provided preventive treatment for 48 children aged under 5 at a high infection risk. Besides, the hospital treated 10 tuberculosis/ HIV co-infected patients. Tuberculosis detection and diagnosis were developed among adults and children, contributing to reducing the transmission in the community.
The provincial tuberculosis control program and tuberculosis network in districts and towns received sufficient supply of medicines. In addition, the hospital regularly inspected and used short-course directly observed therapy (DOT) in every district and town. The hospital assessed the development of the program and provided training for attending physicians at district-level every quarter of the year, says Dr. Ho Ta Phong, Director of Khanh Hoa Tuberculosis & Lung Diseases Hospital.
Moreover, in 2016, the hospital achieved high results in multi drug resistant tuberculosis control. The hospital and tuberculosis control network in districts and towns provided screening examination for 501 patients (up 404% compared with 2015) and detected 49 new cases. The recovery rate was over 83.3%. The hospital founded a well-equipped multi drug resistant tuberculosis outpatient management and applied advanced techniques in detecting multi drug resistant tuberculosis early.
Multi drug-resistant tuberculosis is tuberculosis that does not respond to at least isoniazid and rifampicin, the 2 most powerful anti- tuberculosis drugs. The mismanagement of multi drug resistant tuberculosis patients may lead to the disease transmission to 10-20 people in the community every year. Therefore, adequate treatment and management of multi drug resistant tuberculosis patients can help reduce the spread of infections in the community, contributing to the success of the tuberculosis control program in the province, according to Dr. Ho Ta Phuong,
From now to the end of the year, the provincial tuberculosis control program continues developing the tuberculosis control program, striving to reach the patient recovery rate of over 90%, focusing on promotion of tuberculosis management and supervision; tuberculosis detection and diagnosis among kids with a history of contact with tuberculosis patients, etc.
According to WHO, drug-resistant tuberculosis cases among tuberculosis patients account for 3.3% globally and 4% in Vietnam. Vietnam ranks 11th among the highest TB burden countries in the world.
T.L
Translated by N.T
