During many years, we often implemented the program of epidemiological field training and some cadres participated to these courses in Thai Lan. In order to help understanding about the origine and the development of this training program, the author translated briefly Stephen B. Thacker’s documents published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. The article named Applied epidemiology for the 21st century. The Vietnamese title was made by the author.
Epidemiologic Study ; Education

At the end of 2003 and early 2004, an epidemic of avian influenza with 10 cases and 7 deaths occurred in the North of Vietnam, a subtype H5N1 (A/H5N1) has been identified. The prevalence of total infection with epidemic syndrome in the whole area at the same time was 0.1%, the prevalence infected cases of death was very high (70%). The epidemic was widely distributed in 7 provinces and the highest number of cases was observed in the forth week by the onset of the first case. Sick hens were the evidence of causes. There was not direct infection from human to human. However, there were two case-clusters that happened in the same family, this may be a suggestion of biological and familial factors associated with the susceptibility to the causal virus A/H5N1
Epidemiology ; Influenza A Virus ; H5N1 Subtype ; Influenza in Birds

Morbidity and mortality from acute encephalitis in Vietnam have remained very high, especially in the Northern region. Except for Japanese Encephalitis (JE), the acute viral encephalitis (VE) was not studied as needed. Study was conducted in 374 hospitalized patients aged under 15 with diagnosis of VE in 2003-2004. The results showed that the male to female ratio was 2.3:1. The morbidity and mortality in all ages were not different, but the mortality rate was higher in group of under 10. More than 75% of morbidity occured from April to July.
Encephalitis ; Epidemiology ; Epidemiologic Research Design

We conducted a matched case-control study with 28 laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza A/H5N1 (by RT-PCR assay) and 106 controls in Vietnam in the year 2004 (case to control ratio is 1:4). Matching criteria includes sex, age (the difference is less than 2 year) and location of living. Main results are as follow: (1) Two poultry-related risk factors of human avian influenza A/H5N1 are direct handling of ill/dead poultry, and having ill/dead poultry in household. (2) Unavaillable indoor water-tap in household is signifficantly associated with human influenza A/H5N1. This is an suggestion to the role of hygiene and invironment-related factors, but the mechanism is still not clear. (3) Exposure to healthy poultry, domestic animals and patients with acute respiratory infections seems not to be a risk factor for avian influenza infection in the year 2004. Further studies with integrated designs are needed to describe mode(s) of transmission and identify sources of infection.
Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype ; Humans, Vietnam ; Risk factors

The study showed some remarks on epidemiological characteristics and pathogens of an acute diarrhea outbreak. The outbreak including 25 patients without death occurred on some communes in Hanoi on May, 2004. V. cholerae 01 was isolated from 13/25 patients. Although it was not clear about the source of infection, the initial proof on bio-molecule showed that the outbreak occurred strain might have the same source with V. cholerae O1 isolated in 2000, 2002 and 2003 around Vietnam. In addition, the study also showed some comments and experiences on preventing outbreak
Epidemiology ; Diarrhea ; Disease Outbreaks

On February and March 2003, SARS broke into Vietnam. To prevent the outbreak, it was necessary to supervise closely and regularly all acute pulmonary infectious patients, to detect patients based on diagnosis criteria. SARS outbreak is very dangerous, and it requires emergency epidemic reports, isolated areas of especial treatments for patients. Individuals exposed to SARS patients and people in the community need to be guided and encouraged for use preventive methods. Along with preventive individualization, it’s necessary to have preventive methods for community, especially for high-risk people of SARS infection
SARS Virus ; Preventive Medicine ; Public Health

Background: Hypertension is an important risk factor that increases the cardiovascular disease-related morbidity and mortality, especially in elderly people. Objectives: The study aims to identify the hypertension rate among elderly residents of Can Tho city and some demographic, economic and social factors that were associated with hypertension in view of hypertension is changing with social and economic development. Subjects and method: The cross-sectional study involved 594 elderly people who were living in Can Tho city. Blood pressure was measured by the Korrotkoff method. The demographic, economic and social information was collected using questionnaire-based direct interviews. Results: The hypertension rate was quite high in the elderly group (51.9%). According to the WHO\u2019s ISH criteria, stage III occupied nearly 10%, stage II was approximately 15% and nearly one third of them in stage I. Age and living location were found to have significant impact to blood pressure status. Compared to the age group of 60 to 69, the elderly people in the age group of 70 to 79 were more likely to have hypertension by one and half times. And the risk was more than twice as high in the age group of 80 and above. These relationships were significant to p<0.05. The elderly people who were living in rural areas had twice the chance of having hypertension than those living in urban areas (p<0.001). Conclusion: The hypertension rate was quite high in elderly people in Can Tho city, Viet Nam. Age and living place were factors related to hypertension status in the elderly.
Hypertension ; Elderly

Background: According to Globocan statistics in 2018, there were estimated 1.8 million cases of colorectal cancer and 881,000 deaths. The rate of colorectal cancer is tending to increase in people under 50 years old. According to the 2017 American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy guidelines, Colonoscopy every 5 years beginning 10 years before the age at diagnosis of the youngest affect interval or age 40, whichever is earlier; for those with a single first-degree relative with colorectal cancer in whom no significant neoplasia appears by age 60 years, physicians can offer expanding the interval between colonoscopies. Objectives: (1) T o describe clinical features, endoscopic images, histopathology of polyps and colorectal cancer of first-degree relatives with colorectal cancer. (2) To determine the relationship between risk polyps and colorectal cancer with some factors. Materials and method: Cross-sectional study analyzing all first-degree relatives aged ≥ 40 years or approximately 10 years younger than the age of the patient diagnosed with colorectal cancer undergoing colonoscopy at the Functional Examination Department, Gia Dinh People’s Hospital during the period from June 2019 to December 2019. Results: In 85 cases: The main features of endoscopy were: rectal polyps 47.3%, sizes < 5 mm 63.9%, multiple polyps 52.7%, sessile 91.7% and smooth surface 88.9%. Regarding histopathological characteristics: the proportion of adenomatous polyps and serrated polyps is nearly equal. Mild dysplasia accounts for the highest rate of 84.2%, high dysplasia accounting for 15.8%. There was 1 case of colorectal cancer, in the sigmoid colon, an ulcerative cancer. Factor related to colorectal polyps and colorectal cancer is age, other factors (gender, smoking, alcohol and abesity) didn’t relate. Conclusion: Our result shows that the majority of polyps are located in the rectum, adenomatous polyps and serrated polyps account for nearly equal proportions, there is a relationship between colon polyps and age, there is no relationship between colon polyps. with gender, smoking, alcohol and obesity.

Background: Recently, microplate almar blue assay has been used commonly in detecting gen related to tuberculosis drug resistance, which provides results after 5-7 days with lower cost compared to traditional methods. Objective: To evaluate the application of microplate almar blue assay for rapid detection of drug resistance of M. tuberculosis strains. Subject and Method: A microplate-based assay which uses Alamar blue reagent - an oxidation reduction dye (MABA), was used for the determination of the anti-tuberculosis drug (isoniazid-INH, rifampicine-RIF, streptomycine-STR and ethabuton=EMB) resistance of 96 M. tuberculosis strains isolated from Vietnamese patients in comparison to those obtained by conversional method. Result: MABA showed to have high sensitivity and specificity in testing the sensitivity to individual anti-tuberculosis drugs (from 82.4% for STR to 93.3% for - INH and from 82.5% for EMB to 98.4% for STR; respectively), as well as for the multi-drug resistant M.tuberculosis (86.4% of sensitivity), highly correlated with the result determined by proportion method. Conclusion: MABA reveals the advantage in shortening test time, in simple performance and lower cost compared with the conversional culture based methods.
Microplate almar blue assay ; M. tuberculosis ; drug resistance

Background: Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) is a common disease in developing countries. Morbidity and mortality of ARI are high, especially among children under 15 years old. Objectives: To describe socio-graphic factors, seasonal patterns, risky areas and determine the morbidity and mortality rates of acute respiratory infections in Thai Binh province. Subjects and method: This retrospective study reviewed the medical records of 4,585 hospital admitted patients who were diagnosed with ARI including upper and lower respiratory infections such as sore throat, pharyngitis, bronchitis, pneumonia and bronchitis-pneumonia at 8 district hospitals and 1 provincial hospital in Thai Binh province during 2002-2005. The selected medical records were based on the available check list and two standard screening tests. Results:Morbidity and mortality of ARI in Thai Binh province were 61.6 and 0.52, respectively. ARI mainly occurred among children under 5 years old, of which the highest mortality was among those under 12 months of age. Male children were at higher risk of acquiring ARI, but less prone to death than female. Occupation did not significantly associate with the risk of ARI. The morbidity increased sharply during inter-season, e.g. March and October. Thai Binh city, Kien Xuong and Tien Hai district were reported with the highest morbidity in accompany of the high mortality as consequences. Conclusion: The prevention and control methods were recommended to annually focus on the male children aged less than 5 years old during March and October in Thai Binh city, Kien Xuong and Tien Hai district.
morbidity ; mortality ; acute respiratory infections