Vietnam detects over 100,000 tuberculosis patients annually

HANOI, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam spots 105,000-106,000 tuberculosis (TB) patients each year, and it aims to eliminate the disease by 2030, the country's National Lung Hospital said on Wednesday.

Every year, around 20,000 TB sufferers are not spotted due to various reasons, including difficulties in TB detection and management among HIV carriers, and in clinical and laboratory capacity enhancement.

Vietnam has set targets of reducing 30 percent of TB infections and 40 percent of TB mortality rates in the 2015-2020 period.

The number of Vietnamese people dying of TB between 2015 and 2016 dropped by 3,000 mainly due to early and active diagnosis. Earlier, Vietnam had some 17,000 TB deaths each year.

Since the adoption of multidrug-resistant TB treatment in 2009, Vietnam has treated some 11,000 patients with the success rate of over 70 percent, the hospital said, noting that the world's rate of successfully treating multidrug-resistant TB is 54 percent.

While TB diagnosis and treatment is provided for free, the ultimate patient cost can be equal to as much as to one year of income in Vietnam, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development. This is due to costs associated with hospital stays and additional nutritional needs during treatment. Enditem