The donation includes 38 rapid diagnostic machines, with 90,000 compatible test kits and ten digital X-ray devices, which will be distributed to district health facilities across the country, including the remote provinces of Nghe An, Lai Chau, An Giang, and Dong Thap, which have a high burden of TB and multidrug-resistant TB.
Both the rapid diagnostic machines and the X-ray devices are designed to operate in hard-to-reach areas.
According to USAID Vietnam Mission Director Ann Marie Yastishock, the rapid diagnostic machines, called Truenat, can perform on-the-spot detection of TB and drug-resistant TB in less than two hours and are battery powered.
The digital X-ray devices are ultra-portable, with computer-aided TB detection software to assist in areas where radiologists may not be present.
USAID will continue to support the introduction of the latest high impact TB technology and treatment medications, as part of the ongoing partnership and solidarity between the US and Vietnam, she stressed.
The donation also included drugs to treat 15,000 patients with latent TB infection for three months, to be distributed nationwide.
In addition, USAID is funding a tailored package of training curricula and technical support, to the National Tuberculosis Program, health facility staff and local partners. This will help ensure greater sustainability of efforts to enhance Vietnam’s active case detection, ensure accurate and timely diagnosis, and support linkages to treatment of active and latent TB.
National Lung Hospital Director Dr. Nguyen Viet Nhung reported that approximately 40% of new TB cases go undetected and untreated, in Vietnam every year.
He hailed that the new diagnostic equipment and treatment medications, delivered by USAID, will directly support Vietnam’s National Tuberculosis Programme’s “Double X” strategy, to improve TB case detection and increase the uptake of TB preventive therapy, in the joint effort to end TB in Vietnam.
Since 2018, USAID has provided Vietnam with over 16 million USD in TB health assistance. In continued partnership with the Government of Vietnam, today’s donation demonstrates USAID’s steadfast support to achieve the End TB goals by 2030.
