Background: In Vietnam, Dengue Fever/Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever (DF/DHF) is one of ten contagious diseases causing epidemics with the highest prevalence.\r\n', u'Objectives: To describe some characteristics of DF/DHF epidemic in Khanhhoa province in 2005. \r\n', u'Subjects and methods: The descriptive study based on available data obtained from the surveillance reporting system.\r\n', u'Results: Total reported cases were: 5.365 (morbidity rate = 469.58 per 100.000) and 4 deaths (CFR = 0,074%).446 of 1.661 Mac Elisa tested cases were positives (positively = 26.9%). The positive cases in male were higher than that in female. Almost all of the positive cases were less than 15 years of age. Virus serotype D1 and D2 were isolated in the epidemic. 5 of 7 districts (except 2 mountainous districts) had outbreaks. The epidemic started in April and stopped in December. Ninhhoa district was the first location of the outbreak and Vanninh district was the last one. Geographical distribution of the epidemic was as follows: costal communes=54.6%, delta communes = 30.3%, urban communes =15.1%. The epidemic level was medium (>20% - <50% of communes having the epidemic). "Pilot intervention communes" had 4 times the higher risk of DF/DHF than "non pilot intervention communes". \r\n', u'Conclusions: IEC activities for preventing DF/DHF should be strengthened. For maintaining the low mosquito and breutau index, we need routine preventive actions. Authorities need to consider and to consolidate the activities of Pilot intervention communes. Coastal communes should be supplied with running water. \r\n', u'\r\n', u'
dengue fever/dengue haemorrhagic fever ; epidemic

Background: Child health care practices in the context of households and community is an important factor to improving the health of children. Some indexes were proposed by the World Health Organization to evaluate these practices. Objectives: To describe the knowledge and practice of pregnant women, under-5-year-old children\u2019s health care and assess the application of the survey toolkit in evaluating various indexes of healthcare practice at family and community levels. Subjects and method: By employing a structured interview, this cross-sectional survey has been conducted in Tu Liem district - Hanoi city and Tien Hai district \u2013 Thai Binh province. 120 mothers of under-5-year-old children participated in the survey. Results:98% of mothers had at least 3 antenatal visits during pregnancy. The rate of complete tetanus vaccination reached 43.3% in Tu Liem and 65% in Tien Hai. Prevalence of infant with low birth weight for age accounted for 8.3% in both districts. The percentage of children given complementary feeding at age of 6 to 9 months as the National Nutrition Program recommendations was only 30%. 65.7% and 68.5% of under-2-year-old children in Tu Liem and Tien Hai were breastfed within the first 30 minutes after delivery. There were a small proportion of mothers who gave complementary food either too early or too late, 8.3% and 8.4% in Tu Liem, 6.7% and 6.6% in Tien Hai, respectively. More than 90% of children were given normal feeding as usual during last their illness, but only 50% of children were given more fluid than usual. 98.2% of mothers knew 2 signs to immediately bring the child to health facilities. The most common injuries in under-5-year-old children were animal bites (62.5%) and falling (31.3%), however only 62.5% of mothers knew at least two measures of injury prevention. Conclusion: The toolkit for collecting data of practical index assessment can be applied at communes.
child health care ; practice ; knowledge

Background: According to WHO, there are 5 million deaths from kinds of injury a year in the world, of which 875000 deaths occur in children under 18 years old. Injury leads to 40000 deaths which account for 10.7% deaths due to all other causes a year in VietNam. Objective: To show conclusions of the situation of child injury, recommendations for prevention of child injury and methods in order to enhance emergency activity in Vietnam. Subjects and method: The authors collected information about all patients who had emergencies due to injury at Viet Duc hospital, from March 26th 2006 to Octorber 26th 2006. However, supervised cases were the patients under 18 years old who were examined and treated at the Department of Emergency. Results: During the period of study, 2536 patients under 18 years old were examined for injury, of which death and coming back home for death were 83 cases (3.27%). 974 children had emergency resulted from injury: male was more than female: 697 verus 227. The leading causes of child injury were fall and traffic accident, respetively 34% and 60%. The most common traumas were traumatic brain injury (45%), limbs injury (41%). Although most of cases had first aid at the hospitals in district or province level, the rate of non-first aid cases was high (34%). Conclusion: Child injury is a leading cause of child death in hospitals. Methods for prevention of child injury should focus on educating and propagandizing to minimize injuries caused by traffic accident and fall.
Wounds and Injuries ; Child

BACKGROUNDAzithromycin can reduce neutrophil accumulation in neutrophilic pulmonary diseases. However, the precise mechanism behind this action remains unknown. Our experiment assessed whether azithromycin inhibits neutrophil accumulation in the airways by affecting interleukin-17 (IL-17) downstream signals.

METHODSMice were pretreated with azithromycin before murine IL-17A (mIL-17) stimulation. After the mIL-17 stimulation, the levels of six neutrophil-mobilizing cytokines were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) tests in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid; IL-6, CXC chemokine ligand-1 (CXCL-1), CXCL-5, macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2), granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), and granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). The number of neutrophils in BAL fluid were evaluated by cytospin preparations.

RESULTS(1) Azithromycin pretreatment significantly inhibited both the release of three neutrophil-mobilizing cytokines (MIP-2, CXCL-5 and GM-CSF) and the accumulation of neutrophils in airways caused by mIL-17 stimulation. (2) The levels of three neutrophil-mobilizing cytokines (IL-6, MIP-2 and GM-CSF) were positively correlated with the numbers of neutrophil in BAL fluid.

CONCLUSIONSAzithromycin can inhibit neutrophil accumulation in the airways by affecting IL-17 downstream signals. This finding suggests that macrolide antibiotic application might be useful in prevention of neutrophilic pulmonary diseases characterized by high levels of IL-17.

Animals ; Azithromycin ; pharmacology ; Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid ; chemistry ; Chemokine CXCL2 ; metabolism ; Chemokines, CXC ; metabolism ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor ; metabolism ; Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor ; metabolism ; Interleukin-17 ; pharmacology ; Interleukin-6 ; metabolism ; Male ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Neutrophils ; drug effects ; metabolism

Health financing has been considered as an important building block of a health system and has a key role in promoting universal health coverage in the Vietnam. This paper aims to describe the pattern of health expenditure, including total health expenditure and composition of health expenditure, over the last two decades in Vietnam. The paper mainly uses the data from Vietnam National Health Account and Vietnam Living Standards Survey. We also included data from other relevant published literature, reports and statistics about health care expenditure in Vietnam. The per capita health expenditure in Vietnam increased from US$ 14 in 1995 to US$ 86 in 2012. The total health expenditure as a share of GDP also rose from 5.2% in 1995 to 6.9% in 2012. Public health expenditure as percentage of government expenditure rose from 7.4% in 1995 to nearly 10% in 2012. The coverage of health insurance went up from 10% in 1995 to 68.5% in 2012. However, health financing in Vietnam was depending on private expenditures (57.4% in 2012). As a result, the proportion of households with catastrophic expenditure in 2012 was 4.2%. The rate of impoverishment in 2012 was 2.5%. To ensure equity and efficient goal of health system, policy actions for containing the health care out-of-pocket payments and their poverty impacts are urgently needed in Vietnam.
Developing Countries/*economics ; Financing, Government/economics/trends ; Health Expenditures/*statistics & numerical data/*trends ; *Healthcare Financing ; Insurance, Health/*economics/*trends ; Vietnam/epidemiology

BACKGROUND: In order to provide essential scientific evidence on the population's health status and social health determinants as well as the current capacity of the health care system in Vietnam to health policy makers and managers, Vietnam Ministry of Health, Hanoi University of Public Health, Hanoi Medical University, and Ho Chi Minh University of Medicine and Pharmacy collaborated with Seoul National University (Korea) and conducted a health system survey in the Quoc Oai district (of Hanoi capital) that represented northern rural Vietnam. METHODS: The study design was a cross-sectional study. The survey covered different topics (more than 200 questions) and was administered in three separate questionnaires: 1) Basic information of all household members; 2) Household characteristics; and 3) Individual characteristics. Socio-demographic characteristics among the households and individuals were collected from 2,400 households sampled by multi-stage cluster sampling method: more than 200 questions. RESULTS: The household size of Quoc Oai was larger than the national average and there was no significant difference in gender composition. In addition, the proportions of pre-elderly, age 55–64, and elderly group (65 years old and over) were higher than the national population statistics. In this context, demographic transition has begun in Quoc Oai. CONCLUSION: This study design description provides the basic information about a baseline survey of a future prospective cohort (as a part of a collaborative project on strengthening the health system in Vietnam) to the prospective data user of this survey.
Aged ; Cohort Studies ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Delivery of Health Care ; Family Characteristics ; Health Policy ; Humans ; Methods ; Pharmacy ; Population Characteristics ; Population Dynamics ; Prospective Studies ; Public Health ; Seoul ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Vietnam

Objective: In Viet Nam, tuberculosis (TB) prevalence surveys revealed that approximately 98% of individuals with pulmonary TB have TB-presumptive abnormalities on chest radiographs, while 32% have no TB symptoms. This prompted the adoption of the “Double X” strategy, which combines chest radiographs and computer-aided detection with GeneXpert testing to screen for and diagnose TB among vulnerable populations. The aim of this study was to describe demographic, clinical and radiographic characteristics of symptomatic and asymptomatic Double X participants and to assess multilabel radiographic abnormalities on chest radiographs, interpreted by computer-aided detection software, as a possible tool for detecting TB-presumptive abnormalities, particularly for subclinical TB. Methods: Double X participants with TB-presumptive chest radiographs and/or TB symptoms and known risks were referred for confirmatory GeneXpert testing. The demographic and clinical characteristics of all Double X participants and the subset with confirmed TB were summarized. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression modelling was used to evaluate associations between participant characteristics and subclinical TB and between computer-aided detection multilabel radiographic abnormalities and TB. Results: From 2020 to 2022, 96 631 participants received chest radiographs, with 67 881 (70.2%) reporting no TB symptoms. Among 1144 individuals with Xpert-confirmed TB, 51.0% were subclinical. Subclinical TB prevalence was higher in older age groups, non-smokers, those previously treated for TB and the northern region. Among 11 computer-aided detection multilabel radiographic abnormalities, fibrosis was associated with higher odds of subclinical TB. Discussion: In Viet Nam, Double X community case finding detected pulmonary TB, including subclinical TB. Computer-aided detection software may have the potential to identify subclinical TB on chest radiographs by classifying multilabel radiographic abnormalities, but further research is needed.