The concept of Hazard Analysis Critical Control point was introduced for implementing the 12 step procedures of HACCP in the production and the processing of food. The development and compliance of HACCP in food industry and trade in Vietnam were reviewed.
Food ; Safety Management ; Food Industry

Arsenic pollution in tube well water was observed at both Red river and Mekong river deltas with different levels. The average concentrations were determined as 1.3 µg/L; 6.8 µg/L; 72 µg/L; 165 µg/L; 277 µg/L; 421.5 µg/L at Triton (Angiang); Tuliem (Hanoi); Tanhong (Dongthap); Thanhtri (Hanoi); Hoaiduc (Hatay) and Lynhan (Hanam) respectively. Filtration groundwater by sand has removed a major portion of arsenic. The arsenic accumulation in hair sample is useful biomarker for assessment of chronic intoxication of arsenic form drinking and daily use water. It is proved by closely correlation between arsenic contents in hair and consumed water (R2= 0.935). More detail screening of arsenic pollution in tube well water, evaluation of health effect and education for people to use free arsenic water are the most important approaches.
Arsenic ; Poisoning ; Water ; Epidemiology

Background: The HIV/TB pandemic is a serious danger for humans. In Vietnam, many NGOs recommended that the supply of DCT services for TB patients is essential in HIV/TB prevention. Assessing knowledge and practice of HIV/AIDS preventive tasks for health workers in a context that tuberculosis combined with AIDS is rising, is imperative. Objectives: (1) To describe the knowledge and practice of health workers about the DCT model on HIV/TB patients. (2) To evaluate the knowledge and practice of HIV prevention of occupational exposure at DCT sites in Ha Noi. Subjects and method: A cross - sectional study carried out on all 30 health workers who provided HIV/ TB at 10 DCT sites of TB units in Ha Noi. Results and conclusions: The percentage of health workers, that had full knowledge about DCT methodology was low (<50%), and about all 3 groups of knowledge was very low (21.4%). 82.5% - 100% of health staffs had implemented completely the process of HIV/TB at DCT sites but not very skillfully. All of them paid attention to general prevention and standard preventive methodology, but their practices were not synchronous and correct. Less than 50% of the health workers had full knowledge about the assessment of exposure risk and treatment after exposure.
Diagnostic Counseling and Testing (DCT) ; health workers

Background: Acute renal failure is a common emergency and esspecial dangerous in the neonatal disease group, account for from 8% to 24% of among total patients to be treated at Intensive Care Unit with the high rate of mortality and complication. The mortality rate due to acute renal failure in neonatal group account for from 24.4% to 66,7%. Objectives: This study aims to learn about the clinical and laboratory characteristics as well as some risks factors of neonatal acute renal failure. Subjects and method:A descriptive, retrospective study was conduct on 64 patients without diagnosed of acute renal failure in control group and other 32 cases of acute renal failure whom treated at Neonatal Department of National Hospital for Pediatric from 1st January 2005 to 31st March 2006. Results:The diagnosis was often done in the 1st week of life and the incidence occurred in boy more than in girl.The average reatininernie\r\n', u'was 251.7\xb112.96 \xb5ol/l, the electrical disorder (in which hyperkaliernie: 78.1%, hyponatrernie: 46.9%), anernie was 18.7%, acidosis netabolique was 71.9%. Risk factors of neonatal acute renal failure: the pre-puerperal eclampsia (p = 0.023, OR=1.23), infection (p <0.001, OR = 9.53), suffocation (p <0.05, OR = 2.489), respiratory failure (p <0.001, OR = 2.489). Conclusion: The clinical signs were hyponurie and anuria, oederne and arterial hypertension.\r\n', u'\r\n', u'
Acute Kidney Injury/ diagnosis ; pathology ; Infant

Introduction and Purpose
Overweight and obesity have recently emerged as major problems of malnutrition among children in developing countries. However, risk factors for childhood obesity in Asian countries remain largely unknown. Identification of target populations for its prevention and intervention is urgently needed. This survey was conducted to assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity and identify possible risk factors among kindergarten children in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Methods
In this cross-sectional study conducted in March, 2005, 780 children in their third and fourth years in kindergarten and their mothers were randomly selected from eight local kindergartens. Height and weight of mother-child pairs were measured, and an interview was conducted by trained staff using a questionnaire in Vietnamese. Overweight/obesity was defined as a weight-for-height > 2 SD above the National Center for Health Statistics median reference value. Risk factors for overweight/obesity were analyzed using logistic regression.
Results
There were 741 respondents (377 boys and 364 girls); the response rate was 95.0%. Average age of children was 61.8 ± 6.8 months; the average age of mothers was 35.0 ± 5.2 years. The average height and weight were 110 ± 5.7cm and 21.2 ± 4.0kg respectively. Of the 741 children, 27.8% were identified as being overweight/obesity. Four possible variables selected were: 1) child's sex, 2) mother's awareness of her child's current body type, 3) mother's expectation for her child's body type in the future, 4) mother's awareness of her own current body type .
Conclusion
Our findings point to the importance of addressing appropriate body images in the management of children's nutritional health. Providing sufficient amounts of information on appropriate body type in addition to feeding practice to mothers should be a priority at the Ho Chi Minh City Nutrition Center to prevent child overweight and obesity.

Background:\r\n', u'There are two virus known as Nam Dinh Virus, and Colti group B be found in Viet Nam. These viruses have appeared in the South, the Middle and the Highland. They haven\u2019t been reported in the Southern provinces and Can Thoas well. \r\n', u'Objectives: \r\n', u'To identify the circulation of Nam Dinh virus strain, and coltivirus group B strain in Can Tho, Southern Viet Nam, and their existence in nature.\r\n', u'Subjects and method: \r\n', u'Thirty-four mosquito samples (7, 453 individual mosquitoes) from Culex quinque faciatus and Culex pseudovishnui were collected in Can Tho provice, southern Vietnam 2005.\r\n', u'Isolatingviruses on Aedes albopictuc clone C6/36, Vero cells, and using PT- PCR and ELISA Sandwich for identification. \r\n', u'Results:\r\n', u'2 Nam Dinh virus strains, 2 coltivirus group B strains and 1 flavivirus strain (insect flavivirus) were isolated from Culex quinque faciatus, and no virus was isolated from Culex pseudovishnui.\r\n', u'Conclusion: \r\n', u'The identification of the transmission of Nam dinh Virus, and coltivirus group B in Can Tho province by isolating virus from Culex quinque faciatus has shown the evidence for natural vertical transmission of these viruses.\r\n', u'
Viruses ; Coltivirus ; Flavivirus ; Arboviruses ; Culex ;

Background: Japanese Encephalitis (JE) is common in the plains and mountainous areas in Asia \u2013 Pacific. Japanese encephalitis vaccine shows effectiveness in protecting children from JE in some countries such as Japan and Korea. Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of Japanese Encephalitis (JE) vaccination in Thai Binh province during 2003-2007. Subject and Method: Prospective, retrospective and sero-epidemiological methods were carried out on 329 samples collected from viral encephalitis patients and tested by JE MAC-ELISA, the positive average was 41.6% (137/329). Result: It had dramatically dropped from 85.2% in 2003 to 8.5 % in 2007 related to the rate of JE vaccination for children from 1 to 5 years old increasing from 49 % in 2003 to 77 % in 2007. Most of JE confirmed cases were un-vaccinated. Conclusion: JE etiology cause viral encephalitis in children in Thai Binh province was reduced thanks to JE vaccination in EPI program for 1 to 5 year old children. But more than 96% (131/136) of viral encephalitis in 15 years old upward was unknown etiology, the need for further study of the etiology cause viral encephalitis in adults.
Japanese encephalitis ; virus encephalitis ; MAC-ELISA ; Vaccine

Papiliotrema huenov was previously reported to be highly tolerant of a range of extremely toxic heavy metals. This study aimed to identify the potential of P. huenov to remove manganese and copper from aqueous solution. Physical conditions which affect removal of Mn(II) and Cu(II) were determined. Optimal temperature for adsorption of both metal ions was 30°C, and optimal pH for maximum uptake of Mn(II) and Cu(II) were 5 and 6, respectively. Under these conditions, living cells of P. huenov accumulated up to 75.58% of 110 mg/ L Mn(II) and 70.5% of 128 mg/L Cu(II) over 120 h, whereas, the removal efficiency of metal ions by dead cells over 1 h was 60.3% and 56.5%, respectively. These results indicate that living cells are more effective than dead biomass for bioremediation, but that greater time is required. The experimental data extends the potential use of P. huenov in biosorption and bioaccumulation of toxic heavy metals to copper and manganese, two of the most common industrial contaminants.

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: Shigella-induced diarrhea has been considered a major health problem leading to high morbidity and mortality. This disease can lead to dire consequences; however, the true burden of the disease, including the costs and sequalae associated with shigellosis is not yet known. Objectives: (1) To describe the health seeking behavior and the way of payment of population when suffering Shigella; (2) To identify and analyze the direct household costs associated with the treatment of diarrhea due to Shigella. Subjects and method: 290 patients of all ages with positive Shigella diarrhea admitted to public health facilities in Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa province in the period from August 2002 to January 2004 were included in the study. The subjects were divided into three age groups, the first 0-5, second 5-18 and the last one was over 18 years old. Patients and their relatives were interviewed at three stages - day 7, day 14 and day 90 - to obtain all the required information. Results: 134 of 290 patients (47%) paid for using the other health care services before admission to the study\u2019s facilities. The average direct cost per episode for the patients at group aged 0-5 was 129,000 VND, group aged 6-18 was 59,267 VND and over 18 years old was 173,531 VND; it was 131.960 VND for three groups. Comparison with the average household expenditure for health care, it was higher in the poorer group and it was lower three times than the richest group. The average direct medical cost per episode was higher the average direct non-medical cost per episode for all groups. Conclusions: The average direct cost per episode of Shigellosis treatment was rather high especially the average direct cost for the treatment at the health facility. It was also high compared with the average expenditure for health per capita so that it becomes large economic burden for households.
Direct cost ; Shigella ; treatment