A doctor gives guidance to a tuberculosis patient to take medicines at the Đắk Hà District Medical Centre in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum. — VNA/VNS Photo Dư Toán

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam is home to more than 20,000 people with tuberculosis (TB) who lack health insurance cards, said the Ministry of Health (MoH).

Despite support from the State budget, many impoverished people still cannot afford health insurance and the poor account for a high proportion of those with TB.

To encourage people nationwide to support TB sufferers, the Central Lung Hospital, the National Tuberculosis Control Programme, the Patient Support Foundation to End Tuberculosis (PASTB) and their partners have launched a fundraising campaign.

To join the campaign, people can text the message "TB" to 1402 from March 22 to May 21 to donate VNĐ20,000.

The funds raised will be used to buy health insurance cards for poor TB sufferers. 

Ending tuberculosis in Việt Nam means avoiding the unnecessary deaths of 11,000 people a year now and hundreds of thousands of families not having to worry because someone has TB, according to the MoH.

The PASTB was founded by the Minister of Home Affairs Lê Vĩnh Tân in 2018.

The foundation is a social, charitable, non-profit fund that supports the care, prevention and treatment of  TB patients and people affected by tuberculosis, with a nationwide scope of operation.

By the end of December last year, the fund had supported 2,560 patients with a total amount of more than VNĐ5.7 billion ($246,500). Last year alone, the fund supported 1,441 patients to the tune of more than VNĐ2.3 billion ($99,420).

On the occasion of World Tuberculosis Day March 24, the Representative Office of the World Health Organisation in Việt Nam (WHO) sent a letter to Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam, chairman of the National Committee on Tuberculosis Control, expressing appreciation for TB prevention and control results in Việt Nam in recent years.

The Chief Representative of the WHO in Việt Nam Kidong Park invited Deputy PM Đam to participate in the global campaign on this year's World TB Day.

World TB Day 2021 has the theme 'The clock is ticking'. The WHO calls for strengthening the response to tuberculosis through the implementation of priorities, aiming to get the world on track to meet set targets by 2022.

The WHO's priorities are maintaining a high-level commitment to advocate for sustainable funding for tuberculosis, reaffirming the commitment to implementing the Political Statement of the United Nations General Assembly 2018 on TB and outlining the progress and next steps.

The next priority is to promote a multisectoral accountability approach to end TB towards universal health coverage through strengthening primary healthcare to ensure all people with TB enjoy quality care at affordable prices.

TB is the leading fatal infectious disease in the world, according to the WHO. Every day, nearly 4,000 people die from TB and nearly 30,000 people suffer health effects from TB. In 2015, world leaders pledged to end TB by 2030.

In Việt Nam, the TB burden has decreased significantly. Last year, the TB prevalence rate decreased by 3.1 per cent. However, Việt Nam remains one of the 30 countries with the highest TB burden. There were an estimated 170,000 new TB cases in Việt Nam in 2019. — VNS