HÀ NỘI — Pregnant women, lactating mothers and clinical patients will benefit from two nutrition improvement projects signed between the Ministry of Health and Abbott Company at a ceremony today in Hà Nội.

“The two projects will contribute to the improvement of the nutrition status of the people, especially to the faster decline of stunting malnutrition in Việt Nam and the enhancement of inpatients’ health and clinical treatment efficiency in hospitals,” Deputy Minister of Health Nguyễn Việt Tiến said at the signing ceremony.

The project on improvement of the nutrition status for pregnant women and lactating mothers will focus its activities on developing a National Nutrition Guideline. It will also help to increase knowledge about nutrition in healthcare staff and members of the Việt Nam Women’s Union through implementation of the National Nutrition Guideline for pregnant women and lactating mothers.

The project on improvement of clinical nutrition quality in hospitals in Việt Nam will focus on developing a quality improvement programme (QIP) for clinical nutrition to be implemented in hospitals.

The National Strategy on Nutrition for the period 2011-2020 and vision to 2030 approved by the Prime Minister has identified that an important direction to improve people’s health is providing early nutrition intervention for women of reproductive age, pregnant women and children during the golden period of the first 1,000 days.

The two projects will help the health ministry implement the National Strategy on Nutrition and enhance inpatients’ health and clinical treatment efficiency in hospitals in Việt Nam.

A report of the National Institute of Nutrition showed that the rate of childhood stunting in 2014 was 24.9 per cent, the rate of zinc deficiency in pregnant women was 80.3 per cent and that of anemia was 32.8 per cent. — VNS