Viet Nam

Viet Nam News Agency Hanoi

Viet Nam makes encouraging achievements in child and maternal care 09/09/2005

Ha Noi (VNA) - With the mortality rate among children under five years old falling continuously since 1990, Viet Nam is on the right track to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of cutting the rate by two thirds by 2015.

The rate has already been reduced by half, from 58 per thousand in 1990 to 26 per thousand last year.

The rate of malnutrition among children under five also dropped sharply from 45 percent in 1995 to below 25 percent at present.

This is the result of the country's child primary health care programmes, notably immunisation drives, and a strong network of paediatric hospitals.

The immunisation programmes have helped vaccinate more than 96 percent of under-five children every year against six leading child diseases of tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio and the measles. They have now been expanded to include vaccinations against hepatitis B and Japanese encephalitis.

There are seven paediatric hospitals nationwide, with a total of 3,000 beds. In addition, all general hospitals have paediatric departments. Many facilities are able to perform complicated operations, including kidney and liver transplants and heart surgery.

Over the past years, a number of hospitals and clinics have been giving free medical checks-up and treatment to children under six, at an estimated total cost of billions of VND. In 2004 alone, the State spent 68 billion VND to provide free medical checks-up for children.

In addition, the State has encouraged the community to be involved in implementing child primary health care programmes, and at the same time combining them with poverty reduction, supplying safe water and environmental hygiene programmes.

Progress in child care has also been accompanied with encouraging achievements in maternal care.

Noteworthy was a fall in the mortality rate among mothers giving birth, from 200 per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 80 per 100,000 live births at present.

The number of mothers benefiting from health care services has been on the rise. In 2003, a pregnant mother had an average 2.5 checks-up compared with 1.9 times in 1990. The rate of pregnant mothers vaccinated against tetanus rose from 85 percent to 91 percent, and that of mothers having access to professional care during childbirth has been kept at 95 percent.

These achievements were attributed to the good combination of primary health care, reproductive health care and safe motherhood programmes.

At present, the health sector is deploying a national campaign targeting mothers, focusing on raising their knowledge on health care for themselves and for their children.

The sector has invested in improving grassroot clinics, modernising district health hospitals, and ensuring all communal health centres have doctors and all villages have midwives.

Currently, all communes and wards nationwide have medical workers and 93 percent of communal health centres have midwives.

However, as there are still significant gaps among the mortality rates of under-five children and mothers in different areas and regions, the health sector plans to launch projects on safe motherhood and child care for each province in 2006. Top priority in funding will be given to remote, rural, and mountainous areas and islands.