Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Ha Noi, Sept. 26 (VNA) -- Viet Nam's efforts in fighting malaria over the past decade have been highly valued by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Addressing a conference to review the country's malaria control over the past ten years in Ha Noi on Sept. 26, WHO Director for Western Pacific region Shigeru Omi noted that Viet Nam's malaria incidence and mortality rates recorded last year were lower than the targets set by the WHO.

It was reported at the conference that the country's malaria incidence rate has dropped 77 percent and that the mortality rate has dropped by 97 percent over the past decade. Viet Nam had more than 1 million people with malaria and more than 4,600 fatalities caused by the disease in 1991. These figures fell to 293,000 sufferers and 148 death victims last year.

The progress was attributed to the comprehensive development of a malaria control system which has covered personnel training, the provision of necessary equipment, and the upgrade of facilities from the central to the grassroots level. Great attention has been paid to the development of a village health care network.

However, high malaria incidence rates have been reported from several provinces, namely northern Son La, Mekong delta Dong Thap, southern Dong Nai, central Nghe An, and Central Highlands Kon Tum.

Apart from investment from the State budget, malaria control projects have been receiving generous assistance from the international community, particularly from the European Committee (EC). The effective implementation of those projects helped improve the qualifications of medical workers and expand infrastructure facilities, thus significantly contributing to the fight against the disease in malaria-prone localities.

Thanks to major malaria control projects carried out from 1991 to 2000, the central highland province of Kon Tum's malaria incidence rate decreased 54 percent while its mortality went down 97 percent. In addition, no large-scale malaria epidemic broke out during the reviewed period.

Similar improvements were observed in southern Dong Nai province and northwestern Son La province. Dong Nai - with a population of 680,000 - had its total number of malaria patients dropped to 6,500 from 44,000 in ten years. Meanwhile, Son La province, inhabited by almost 920,000 people, had only 6,000 malaria patients last year as compared against 47,000 patients detected in 1991. In these two provinces last year, not a single person died from malaria.

Taking the floor, Health Minister Do Nguyen Phuong, however, warned the conference of increasing malaria cases in a number of localities, emphasizing that malaria still poses a serious threat to vast regions of Viet Nam.

Highland regions, chiefly inhabited by ethnic communities, are malaria-prone areas, he said, citing the Tay Nguyen (central highland) region as an example with the rates of malaria incidence and mortality being five and ten times, respectively, higher than the country's average. Malaria remains a threat to central and southeastern regions, the minister added.

The difficult problems faced by the health care sector in fighting the disease were the increasing flows of migrants from malaria-prone areas to malaria-free areas, the low living standards and lack of malaria awareness of people inhabiting in malaria-prone areas, and the inefficient operation of local health care networks, the minister pointed.

Apart from failing to improve hygienic conditions in their residential areas, many malaria patients did not follow their full course of treatment. As a result, malaria medicine lost its effectiveness in many localities.

The health care sector aims to reduce the malaria mortality rate to 0.17 per 100,000 people by 2005 from the current rate of 0.19 per 100,000 people, and the malaria incidence rate to 3.5 per 1,000 from 3.85 at present. At the same time, it aims to keep malaria under control and maintain sustainable anti-malaria factors in at least half of the districts classified as malaria-prone areas.--VNA