Since December 2003, highly pathogenic avian influenza A/(H5N1) viruses have swept through poultry populations across Asia and parts of Europe and Africa. The outbreaks are historically unprecedented in scale and geographical spread. Their economic impact on the agricultural sector of affected countries has been enormous. Viet Nam has been one of the countries most affected by avian influenza in humans. WHO is coordinating the global response to human cases of avian influenza A/(H5N1) and monitoring the corresponding threat of an influenza pandemic.
Antimicrobial agents (which include antibiotics, antiviral, antifungal, and antiparasitic drugs) are among the most frequently prescribed medications in modern medicine and are used to treat infectious diseases. Antimicrobial resistance occurs because medication is inappropriately used, such as when patients use them for the wrong type of diseases, take them unnecessarily or in incomplete doses. In such cases, the microorganisms adapt, either through evolution, gene transfer or mutation, and are no longer destroyed by antimicrobial action. According to a report from the Asian Network for surveillance of Resistant Pathogens (ANSORP) 2000-2001, Vietnam has the highest prevalence of penicillin-resistant (71.4%) and erythromycin-resistant (92.1%) Streptococcous pneumonia.
Emerging and epidemic-prone diseases pose serious public health threats in Viet Nam and the rest of the world. Over the past few years, Viet Nam has experienced significant outbreaks of newly emerging diseases, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and avian influenza A (H5N1). Outbreaks of known communicable diseases continue to occur regularly in Viet Nam and the Western Pacific Region.
The goal of the Field Epidemiological Training Programme is to develop a self-sustaining, institutionalized capacity to train preventive medicine staff in field epidemiology in Vietnam. The training programme integrates Viet Nam’s overall efforts to strengthen capacity for minimizing the risks and impacts of communicable diseases. In Viet Nam, there are currently 11 FETP fellows (1st and 2nd classes) in training. They have conducted dozens of field investigations and epidemiological studies covering a wide range of communicable disease issues, and have presented their results at national and international scientific conferences.
The number of people infected with HIV/AIDS in need of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment in Viet Nam is increasing rapidly. The country is now facing a major challenge regarding HIV care and treatment.
Since the first HIV case was detected in Viet Nam in 1990, the majority of reported infections and AIDS cases have been from Injecting Drug Users (IDUs) (50-60%). However, heterosexual transmission, particularly through commercial sex, appears to be increasing. It's estimated that there's around 300 000 people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Viet Nam.
Unlike ordinary seasonal influenza, pandemic influenza can occur at any time of the year and results in much higher illness and mortality because it is a new virus that is capable of spreading globally to the majority of the world’s population that has no immunity to the virus. than those associated with epidemics of seasonal influenza. . In Viet Nam, the first case of the H1N1 (2009) influenza pandemic virus was reported to WHO on 2 June 2009. By 19 March 2010 there had been 11,214 cases and 58 deaths reported. On August 2010, WHO declared that the H1N1 (2009) pandemic was at an end, and that the world had entered the post-pandemic period.
Most of Vietnamese children are infected with "worms". A 2004 study found that multiple infestations of roundworms, hookworms and whipworms are very common among children in all parts of the country.
Infection prevention and control refers to all policies, procedures and activities, which aim to prevent or minimise the risk of transmission of infectious diseases.
Malaria is a life-threatening parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitoes. Today approximately 40% of the world's population is at risk of malaria. These people mainly live in the world's poorest countries. At least one million people - mostly children - die each year from malaria. However, malaria is now almost non-existent in Viet Nam.
An influenza pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus capable of causing severe disease transmits easily among humans. Since there is no immunity to a newly emerging virus in the human population, it can cause a pandemic – an epidemic on a global scale. With the spread of the avian influenza A(H5N1) virus in poultry and wild birds, as well as a number of human infections, there is a growing risk of an influenza pandemic in humans. While it is impossible to predict with accuracy when a pandemic might occur or its exact impact, the potential for widespread human infection – accompanied by severe illness and death – cannot be dismissed.
Tuberculosis (TB) is an airborne infectious disease that is both preventable and curable. People ill with TB bacteria in their lungs can infect others when they cough. TB is one of the world's leading infectious killers of young adults. Globally an estimated 1.5 million people died from TB each year. In addition, another 200 000 people with HIV die from HIV-associated TB. In Viet Nam, almost 20 000 people die every year (1 death every 26 minutes) from TB.
Zoonotic diseases are communicable diseases that originate in animals, but also infect humans. These diseases are receiving increasing attention from the international community, as they account for 75% of newly emerging infectious diseases. Recent examples include avian influenza and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).