Official development assistance — aid — has made an important contribution to improvements in health in Viet Nam as in the rest of the world.
Since 1994 Viet Nam has focused on increasing the number of blood donations and it has made significant progress. Viet Nam has more than tripled the total number of voluntary donations collected since 1994. It has increased from less than 15% to more than 65% the rate of voluntary blood donations. These increases are mostly due to intensive campaigns in Viet Nam's major cities. Despite this success in 2007 Viet Nam experienced a chronic shortage of blood. The country still only collects about 40% of its total need for blood.
Due to climate change the health of millions of people in Viet Nam's Mekong Delta region are at risk. The World Bank Global Monitoring Report shows that if there is a 1 meter rise in sea level, Viet Nam will be the MOST affect country in the world - displacing millions of people from their home and land.
In recent years Viet Nam has experienced a noticeable increase in both the severity and frequency of storms, typhoons and landslides. The country's central coast is hit by four to six typhoons every year and the great river basins of the north and south flood annually. In addition industrialization, economic diversification and pollution combined with a lack of regulation or poor enforcement of regulations are introducing new hazards.
With the rapid industrialization, urbanization and motorization in Viet Nam in recent years environmental pollution has become a serious health issue. Urban air pollution, solid and hazardous waste and man-made disasters and emergencies are taking their toll on people's health. Solving these problems requires cooperation from the health and environmental sectors. Viet Nam needs to strengthen its collective commitment to give priority to environmental health challenges.
Health is a "state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity". WHO and governments around the world acknowledge health as a human right. Viet Nam also acknowledges health as every citizen's right.
Viet Nam's doi moi economic reforms, begun in the late 1980s, have had a considerable impact on the health sector, mainly through the introduction of user fees and private health care provision. Data from the Viet Nam National Health Accounts show that, overall, Viet Nam spent 5.9% of GDP on health in 2005. This means Viet Nam spends a reasonable share of GDP on health, compared to other low and middle-income countries.
Viet Nam is increasingly opening its economic market for international trade through accession to WTO and other multilateral and bilateral trade agreements.
Lack of sanitation kills. It degrades health - especially that of children - and undermines education. It affects whole communities but consistently those most severely affected are the poor and disadvantaged. Improving sanitation represents the best options to really accelerate health, social and even economic development. Each year more than 20 000 people die in Viet Nam because of poor water, sanitation and hygiene (WHS). The lack of safe water, sanitation and hygiene remains an urgent health issue in Viet Nam.