Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son and Vice President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee Truong Thi Ngoc Anh were assigned as deputy chairpersons of the committee.

Members of the committee include leaders and officials of different ministries and organizations such as the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Red Cross Society.

The committee’s duty is to help PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc to give guidance to concerned organizations in tuberculosis prevention and control towards eliminating the disease by 2030.

leftcenterrightdel
Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam is chairman of the National Committee for Tuberculosis Prevention and Control.

It will also propose with PM Phuc measures and action programs related to the disease.

The Ministry of Health is responsible for ensuring work facilities for the committee.

Around 12,000 people die from tuberculosis each year in Vietnam - that’s one and half times higher than those killed in traffic accidents over the same period, according to the National Lung Hospital.

Vietnam is in the world’s top 30 countries with high tuberculosis rates. The country ranks 16th in the number of tuberculosis patients and 13th in the rankings of drug-resistant tuberculosis patients. Seventy percent are of working age (between 15 and 55).

It is estimated that Vietnam still has 124,000 newly detected cases each year.

Source: VNA