The Ministry of Health has warned that
insecticide-resistant mosquitoes have appeared in the country and are liable to
spread.
The
ministry predicted that combating malaria will likely be more complicated this
year, with the number of cases increasing both in areas where the disease used
to be common and in places where cases had not previously occurred.
Director
of the National Institute of Malariology, Parasitology and Entomology (NIMPE),
Tran Thanh Duong, said on Tuesday that malaria had been greatly reduced since
1991. In some cities and provinces there have been no cases reported in recent
years.
Disease
prevention work produced encouraging results last year. The number of people
contracting the malarial parasite decreased sharply against previous years.
The
number of malaria patients nation-wide last year was reduced by 31 per cent
against previous years, with only three deaths reported.
In 2015,
city and provincial authorities mobilised financial and human resources to
implement disease discovery, diagnosis and treatment for patients.
Local
authorities took the initiative in preventing mosquitoes from breeding, killing
their larvae and disseminating methods for people to protect themselves from
malaria.
The
director said that disease prevention work faced difficulties in remote and
poor areas, where people still slept in fields in the mountains over-night
without mosquito nets.
There was
the additional threat of malaria spreading via those who travel and trade at
border areas with Laos and Cambodia. Also, there were increasing numbers of
Vietnamese labourers going to Africa and countries where malaria and
medicine-resistance parasites are endemic.
The State
budget for malaria prevention programmes is limited and sources of
international aid for the problem have decreased.
The
Preventive Health Department reported that the health sector strives to reduce
the ratio of people contracting malaria to under 15 people per 100,000 in the
2016-2020 period.
The
department continues to maintain and develop grassroots prevention health
workers and expand effective working models in high-risk areas.
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