The Ministry of Health and the People’s Committee in Hanoi jointly organized a meeting to launch the National Action Month on Population on December 9.

Ministry takes action for population quality

This year action month on population with theme “ Early health screening before giving birth and for newborn aims to improve population quality” aims to increase people’s awareness of prenatal health screening to have healthy babies and early screening for prompt treatment.

The action month implemented the 12th Party Central Committee’s Resolution which set out a 2030 goal of having 70 percent of pregnant women to undergo four popular innate diseases and 90 percent of newborns respectively to be screened for at least five popular diseases.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Heath Minister Nguyen Viet Tien said to achieve the above goal, in next time, the Ministry of Health will increase information and improve awareness and responsibility of party organizations, local governments and unions as well as the important role of population to the country’s sustainable development.

The Ministry will continue enhance campaigns and activities to change people’s awareness of population quality, gender imbalance, health care for senior people in the community, and increase the rate of pregnant women who employ screening health services before giving birth and for their newborns.

According to the Ministry of Health, at present, the prenatal and newborn health screening project has been implemented in 63 cities and provinces nationwide.

In central cities, pregnant women can arrive in prenatal screening center which will provide essential services for them and their babies meanwhile their counterparts in districts can come to population family planning  centers for consultation, early screening and examination for early detection of fetus' defects.

SGGP