The risk of occurrence of extremely dangerous resistant TB bacteria in Vietnam

On August 23, at the 6-month preliminary meeting of the National TB Program in Region B2 (Central Highlands and South Vietnam) held in Da Lat, Associate Professor, Dr. Dinh Ngoc Sy - Project Manager, According to the national anti-tuberculosis report, currently, the proportion of TB patients with treatment failure due to multi-drug resistance in Vietnam is 3.8% and has potential risks.

Ohim lung scan of 1 tuberculosis patient (Photo: Vnmedia)

According to Mr. Dinh Ngoc Sy, during the three surveys from 1996 to 2005, the rate of drug-resistant TB in Vietnam has decreased but on the contrary, the rate of multi-drug resistant patients tends to increase. The above 3.8% level is not high compared to the world but it is worth noting that the rate is not the final number but also likely to increase in a bad way.

The main cause of this situation is that we have not strictly controlled the 'bluff' floating TB medicines in the market and the result is tuberculosis patients (who are still afraid of being stigmatized and concerned). The reason of not wanting to inform the medical establishment) is that it can buy drugs and self-treat not according to the regimen, improper principles, leading to 'greasy medicine', generating multi-drug resistant strains of bacteria.

If not prevented, it is likely that in Vietnam there will be extremely dangerous strains of tuberculosis-resistant TB. Besides the above reason, late detection (especially for patients with difficult TB) also causes treatment failure due to multi-drug resistant TB.

In order for the national tuberculosis prevention program to be effective, a six-month review of the National TB Program in Region B2 (Central Highlands and South Vietnam) was held in Da Lat on August 23, Associate Professor, Dr. Dinh Ngoc Sy Recommendation: The Ministry of Health should quickly advise the Government to urgently take measures to strictly manage floating anti-tuberculosis drugs on the market today.