Number of patients with typhoid, dengue fever, cholera fell
Ha Noi, Feb. 25 (VNA) -- The number of people stricken with typhoid, dengue fever and cholera in Viet Nam fell remarkably in 2000.
The incidence of typhoid fell by 43 percent; dengue fever by 46.5 percent and cholera by six percent, compared with the previous year.
Viet Nam was also officially recognized as having eliminated polio and riding new-born infants of tetanus in accordance with the World Health Organisation standards. The diptheria rate was reduced to one per 100,000 while the number of people contracting malaria fell 50 percent against 1995.
Goitre among children aged eight to 12 dropped to 10 percent and mulnutrition among children under-five declined to 33.1 percent by the end of 2000.
The achievements are attributed to the medical sector's efforts in preventing and controlling diseases. Viet Nam has produced nine vaccines and provided immunisation against six major child killers for more than 95 percent of the country's infants.
Last year, the sample testing of labour environmental hygiene increased 56 percent while the number of workers receiving regular medical check-ups rose 31 percent, over 1999.
Almost 52 percent of all Viet Nam's communes have physicians and 70 percent of villages, medical workers.--VNA
