VN plans to put end to TB within 20 years

HA NOI — Viet Nam plans to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) by 2030. The National Tuberculosis Prevention (NTP) Programme yesterday revealed its strategy for the next five years to reduce the prevalence of TB by half of the estimated incidence in 2000. It also aims to keep the multi-drug resistance (MDR) rate steady between now and 2015.

"TB epidemiology in Viet Nam is still higher than the previous estimation of health experts. Thus, a significant number of TB cases remain undiagnosed or unreported and will continuously be sources of transmission," said NTP Director Dinh Ngoc Sy.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, Viet Nam still ranks 12th among 22 TB high burden countries and ranks 14th among 27 countries with a high burden of MDR-TB. The NTP estimated that Viet Nam has about 200,000 TB cases of all forms, of which nearly 100,000 are new cases.

The number of TB cases detected and treated consistently remains under 60 per cent of new cases annually. MDR-TB is about 20 per cent of previously treated TB patients.

Viet Nam will have to mobilise about US$250 million of the total budget of $340 million from local and international donors to implement the National Tuberculosis Prevention Programme (NTP) in the next five years, Sy said.

"The State funding for the tuberculosis prevention programme only satisfied about 30 per cent of the budget requirement," he said.

The NTP said TB prevention activities have faced many challenges due to inadequate budget, lack of human resources, legal shortcomings, a weak health system and the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The programme period 2011-15 targets objectives that ensure access to and provision of equitable, high-quality and basic directly observed treatment (DOT) services at all levels of the healthcare system; address TB/HIV, MDR-TB and TB control in prisons; integrate NTP into the health system; and mobilise the involvement of all economic sectors in the NTP fight. WHO estimates there are about 2 million new TB cases, 93 per cent of which are in Viet Nam, the Philippines, Cambodia and China. In fact, 260,000 people die from TB each year in the Western Pacific region. — VNS

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Report finds illegal logging rampant in country

Illegal deforestation activities are widespread across the nation, says the latest report from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's General Forestry Department.

Since the beginning of this year, 2,463 illegal logging cases have been found nationwide. In actions taken in several cases, 44 forest rangers have been injured and four people killed, according to the report.

Local authorities should immediately act to educate and come up with necessary solutions to end the illegal exploitation, said Ha Cong Tuan, deputy head of the department.

He was speaking last week at the National Conference on Forestry Management and Protection in the Central Highland province of Gia Lai .

Tuan also called on the local authorities to bring illegal cases to court.

"In the long term, localities should properly use land and forest resources as mentioned in the socio-economic master plan," he said.

The situation of illegal forest exploitation was particularly bad in the northern provinces of Bac Kan , Lang Son and Thai Nguyen; the central provinces of Quang Binh, Quang Nam and Khanh Hoa; and the Central Highland province of Dak Lak , the conference heard./.

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Officials find 1,000 children molested a year in Vietnam

Last year 833 children in Vietnam were found molested across the country, the Ministry of Labors, War Invalids and Social Affairs reported at a conference in Hanoi Wednesday.

Meanwhile, 1,427 cases were recorded in 2008, bringing the annual number of sexual abuse cases to over 1,000 on average per year between 2008 and 2009, according to the ministry.

However, Nguyen Hai Huu, chief of the ministry’s Children Care and Protection Agency, said the figures in reality is much higher, as there are many cases that weren’t reported to agencies because the latter’s management isn’t strict enough.

Not to mention that victims’ families usually choose to keep silence, because they are ashamed or afraid that their children’s future will be affected, or accept compensations from other party, he said.

Huu also warned about increases in the number of children kidnapped and violently abused at the conference of “Preventing violence and abusing from children,” held by the ministry in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Training and international organizations.

In fact, 628 children were recorded to be kidnapped last year, almost tripling the year before, according to the ministry, noting that it mainly happened at border areas and victims are often trafficked to China or Cambodia.

In the meantime, between 2008 and 2009, nearly 6,000 cases where children were violently abused were reported nationwide, the ministry said.

It was estimated that over 100 children were murdered a year, the Ministry of Public Security reported.

Participants at the conference also voiced their concerns over recent high-profile school violence cases.

Nguyen Dinh Manh, deputy chief of the education ministry’s Students’ Affairs Department, said since the last school year of 2009-2010, Vietnam has recorded 1,598 cases of students fighting nationwide, seven of which were deadly

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Officials find 1,000 children molested a year in Vietnam

Last year 833 children in Vietnam were found molested across the country, the Ministry of Labors, War Invalids and Social Affairs reported at a conference in Hanoi Wednesday.

Meanwhile, 1,427 cases were recorded in 2008, bringing the annual number of sexual abuse cases to over 1,000 on average per year between 2008 and 2009, according to the ministry.

However, Nguyen Hai Huu, chief of the ministry’s Children Care and Protection Agency, said the figures in reality is much higher, as there are many cases that weren’t reported to agencies because the latter’s management isn’t strict enough.

Not to mention that victims’ families usually choose to keep silence, because they are ashamed or afraid that their children’s future will be affected, or accept compensations from other party, he said.

Huu also warned about increases in the number of children kidnapped and violently abused at the conference of “Preventing violence and abusing from children,” held by the ministry in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Training and international organizations.

In fact, 628 children were recorded to be kidnapped last year, almost tripling the year before, according to the ministry, noting that it mainly happened at border areas and victims are often trafficked to China or Cambodia.

In the meantime, between 2008 and 2009, nearly 6,000 cases where children were violently abused were reported nationwide, the ministry said.

It was estimated that over 100 children were murdered a year, the Ministry of Public Security reported.

Participants at the conference also voiced their concerns over recent high-profile school violence cases.

Nguyen Dinh Manh, deputy chief of the education ministry’s Students’ Affairs Department, said since the last school year of 2009-2010, Vietnam has recorded 1,598 cases of students fighting nationwide, seven of which were deadly

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