Up to 40 percent of the population could contract the TB virus, Dinh Ngoc Sy, director of the National Lung Hospital told a recent press briefing in Hanoi to mark the National Anti-TB Action Month and World Tuberculosis Day (March 24).

Dr Sy, also the chairman of the National Tuberculosis Prevention and Control Program, said Vietnam also ranks 14th among the 27 countries having the highest number of multi-drug resistant TB patients.

“In Asia, Vietnam only comes after China, the Philippines, and Cambodia in the tally of TB patients. Each year the country adds about 200,000 more patients and nearly 30,000 deaths from the disease,” Sy said.

The greatest concern now is that 5-6 percent of about 300,000 TB patients nationwide are simultaneously infected with both tuberculosis and HIV, he warned.

In addition, the number of multi-drug resistant TB cases represents 2.7 percent of the country’s total tuberculosis cases.

Meanwhile, the country’s TB prevention and control program is facing a serious shortage of medical workers, especially in rural and remote areas, Sy said, adding that about 50 percent of health workers in charge of tuberculosis are new and basically untrained.

He also said that one in every five Vietnamese people are found to have contracted the TB virus, Mycobacterium, but have yet to develop the disease.
“To achieve a TB free world, the theme of this year’s World Tuberculosis Day, we must take action right now,” he added.