About 40.3% catholic couples at reproductive age intended to have more than 2 children. The big factors that effected on the size of catholic families were age, education level, and birth interval. The catholic women got married earlier than non-catholic women did and the interval between the first 2 children less than 5 year was quite high (72.8%). Married catholic women went to have abortion less frequent than non-catholic women did and they usually finished their pregnancies by deliveries. The population coordinators and religious leaders participated actively in population and family planning activities and had been accepted by catholics. It was needed to have policies support for population and family planning activities in catholic community.
Family Planning Services, Quality of Life, Catholicism

A study on 332,966 couples in the reproductive age showed that women were taking heavier responsibility for applying contraceptive methods than their men. The abortion rate in the communities of Thai Binh was quite high (0.85 case of abortion per one case of delivery). The unbalance in gender of newborns is becoming a serious and urgent social issue (boy to girl ratio is 121/100 in newborns).
Reproductive Medicine ; Women

A study on 784 HIV positive cases detected between 1996 and May 2004 in Thaibinh city and Kienxuong district showed that the HIV/AIDS prevelance in the studied areas was 205.56/100,000 people. The HIV positive cases were mainly in the 20-39 age group. In the households with one positive case accounted for 91.6%. The households with more than 1 positive case was 7.6%. The orphans (parents died from AIDS) were 0.8%. Among all HIV positive cases, 68.75% were drug users, 10.45% were STI people, 2.93% were commercial sex workers, and 1.9% were pregnant women
Epidemiology ; hiv ; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

There were 142.001 drug addicts in Vietnam at the end of 2002. 60% of them affected with HIV/AIDS. 40% of the addicts received treatment for drug withdrawal in special institutions. Besides modern medicine, traditional treatment methods included herbal prescriptions such as Cemedex, Camat, etc, steam bath, acupuncture. The overall outcome showed that addiction crisis might be cut off, but nearly 90% of people had been addicted again so far in Vietnam. Several socio-medical recommendations were suggested to improve the situation
Medicine, Traditional ; History, Modern 1601- ; Substance-Related Disorders

Decoction Invigorating “yang” for recuperation was a prescription reported in the book Corrections on the Errors of Medical Works of the Qing Dynasty, written by Wang Qingren (end of 18th – beginning of 19th century). Ingredients: Radix Astragali 160g, Radix Angelicae Sinensis 8g, Radix Paeoniae Rubra 6g, Semen Persicae 4g, Rhizoma Ligustici Chuanxiong 4g, Lumbricus 4g, Flos Carthami 4g. 3 characteristics of the recipe: this was a promoting blood circulation recipe but the monarch drug – Radix astragali – has been an invigorating “qi” remedy, which has been used at the same time for promoting blood circulation. 84% (160g) of the total amount of the recipe has been the invigorating “qi” drug, this was an application of the theory: “qi” being the commander of blood. The recipe has been identified to have warm property, because the percentage of warm ingredients (Radix Astragali, Radix angelicae, Sinensis, Rhizoma Ligustici Chuangxiong, Flos Carthami) was 93% (176g)
Medicine, Traditional ; Therapeutics ; Study Characteristics [Publication Type]

Study on 11670 married women aborted in first 9 months of year 2004 showed that the abortion to delivery rate was 0.85%. Percentage of abortion was 18.53% in married women who were applying contraceptive methods. The rate of husbands implementing contraceptive methods only was 2.8%. 97.2% of wives had to take responsibility on using contraceptive methods. The most common reasons that make women go to have abortion were do not want to have more children (70%) and want to extend the interval between deliveries (21%). There was only 3% women aborted due to afraid of breaking the rules
Abortion, Induced ; Women ; Epidemiology

Study on maternal mortality and maternal mortality-induced basic causes in Thai Binh province during 1991-2000. The results: maternal mortality by different causes is 61.1%. Direct causes on maternal mortality are uterine hemorrhage, toxemia of pregnancy, infection, rupture of uterus and curettage for abortion. Maternal mortality by indirect causes is 34.4%, in which, nearly a half of deaths due to pregnant cardiopathies and over a half of deaths due to other indirect causes. There are 6 cases of maternal mortality not diagnosed. Maternal mortality occurs mainly at the age from 25 to 39 years old
Maternal Mortality ; Epidemiology ; Diagnosis ; Age Factors

Analysis of 1.701 cases of children mortality under 14 years old at 7 districts and Thai Binh city, from January 1998 to December 2000. The results: early neonatal mortality (< 7days) or a part of prenatal mortality accounted for 35.3%; neonatal mortality 41.6%, children mortality under 1 year old: 57.6%; children mortality under 5 years old: 83.5% compared with children mortality total under 14 years old. Children mortality rate under 1 year old was 13.22%o; Children mortality rate under 5 years old trended to decrease from 23.3%o (1998) to 17.5%o (2000). The main causes of children mortality was cerebral diseases, meninges diseases; respiratory diseases, cardiovascular disease; then some accidents as drowning, electric shock, traffic accident and the third was premature birth
Child ; Mortality ; Cerebral Arterial Diseases ; Premature Birth

Following the first report of Opisthorchis viverrini infection in a domestic duck in Phu My District of Binh Dinh Province, Central Vietnam, many other cases were observed in the province. We determined the infection rate and intensity of O. viverrini infection in ducks in 4 districts of the province. A total of 178 ducks were randomly selected from 34 farms for examination of flukes in the liver and gall bladder. An infection rate of 34.3% (range 20.7-40.4% among districts) was found; the intensity of infection was 13.8 worms per infected duck (range 1-100). These findings show the role of ducks as a host for O. viverrini, duck genotype, which is sympatric with the human O. viverrini genotype in this province. It also stresses the need for investigations on the zoonotic potential and the life cycle of this parasite.
Agriculture ; Ducks* ; Genotype ; Humans ; Life Cycle Stages ; Liver ; Opisthorchis* ; Parasites ; Prevalence* ; Trematoda* ; Urinary Bladder ; Vietnam*

Background: Dengue virus infection is a major public health problem. A hypothesis put forward for severe dengue is the cytokine storm, a sudden increase in cytokines that induces vascular permeability. Previous studies and our recent meta-analysis showed that IL-6, IL-8, IFNγ, TNFα, VEGF-A and VCAM-1 are associated with dengue shock syndrome. Therefore, in this study we aim to validate the association of these cytokines with severe dengue. Methods & Findings: In a hospital based-case control study in Vietnam, children with dengue fever, other febrile illness and healthy controls were recruited. Dengue virus infection was confirmed by several diagnostic tests. Multiplex immunoassay using Luminex technology was used to measure cytokines simultaneously. A positive association with dengue shock syndrome was found for VCAM-1, whereas a negative association was found for IFNγ. Furthermore, multivariate logistic analysis also showed that VCAM-1 and IFNγ were independently correlated with dengue shock syndrome. Conclusion: IFNγ and VCAM-1 were associated with dengue shock syndrome, although their role in the severe dengue pathogenesis remains unclear. Additional studies are required to shed further light on the function of these cytokines in severe dengue.