The programme also set a target for testing sputa of 128,590 people, or 1.58 per cent of the city’s total population, experts said at a conference on TB prevention and control held yesterday in the city.

Dr Dang Minh Duong of Pham Ngoc Thach Hospital, which is in charge in carrying out the programme, said the city in 2017 tested sputa of 93,000 people in an aim to detect TB.

The number of new patients with TB totalled 16,452 in 2017, an increase of 3.5 per cent compared to 2016. Of these, 7,778 pulmonary TB patients were admitted for treatment this year, an increase of 8.5 per cent compared to 2016.

Duong said the city cured 88.4 per cent of patients with pulmonary TB in 2017.

Many TB patients do not have symptoms and can be dangerous sources for transmission. Moreover, many patients with TB give up their treatment, leading to drug-resistant TB.

Around 24 per cent of TB patients in the city have drug-resistant tuberculosis and multi drug-resistant tuberculosis, he said, adding that the country has around 3,000 patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis.

Hospitals in the city in 2017 admitted 282 children with TB in 2017, including 47 positive for pulmonary TB, an increase of 74 per cent compared to 2016.

Duong warned that children with TB could become blind or paralyzed or even die if not treated in time.

If children show symptoms such as fever and cough and do not gain weight for a long time, parents should bring their children to health facilities immediately for testing, he said.

Dr Nguyen Thanh Mai of the Pham Ngoc Thach Hospital said that public and private health facilities at all levels in TB prevention and control would continue to increase the number of TB patients to be tested and treated.

The co-operation will help the city reach its goal to be free of TB, Mai said.

Duong said the city would install more machines for TB tests at eight sites in districts 1, 7, 10, Binh Tan, Hoc Mon, Phu Nhuan, Tan Phu and Thu Duc in 2018.

VNS