Four die in car accident

Four people died in a car accident in the southern province of Long An this morning.

The accident took place around 4.30 am on national highway 62 milestone 51+150.

The car reportedly flipped over after falling into a lake with four passengers still trapped inside.

Deputy Head of the Long An Traffic Safety Committee Phung Van On said the authority is looking into the cause of the accident. 

HCM City to rebuild traditional market

HCM City has decided to clear the traditional, 22,000-square-metre Tan Binh Market and replace it with a modern six-storey structure and 17-floor trade centre.

It is estimated to cost VND4 trillion (US$190 million), which will come from the Tan Binh Phu Trading, Service and Real Estate Company, a joint-venture between the Tan Binh District Public Service Company and Tan Quang Limited Company.

The trade centre will be built on 7,000 square metres while the traditional market with 5,000 kiosks will occupy the rest of the space.

Tan Binh Market was built before 1975 and has been upgraded several times. It has 3,300 kiosks, two-thirds of which measure less than one square metre.

The beehive of a market is highly vulnerable to fire.

Course helps protect endangered primates

The Frankfurt Zoological Society's Viet Nam Primate Conservation Programme will host an eight-day training course for students at the city's Teachers' Training College.

The annual course, which began on Saturday, aims to raise awareness about endangered primate protection in Viet Nam's central and Central Highlands regions. Students will visit Kon Ka Kinh Park in Gia Lai Province, home to 250 grey-shanked douc.

Viet Nam is one of 30 countries in the world with a population of grey-shanked douc. About 1,000 animals live in forests in Binh Dinh, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Gia Lai and Kon Tum provinces.

Mekong rice harvest wraps up successfully

Farmers in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta have had a high yield for the summer-autumn rice crop, and the price of rice has increased as well.

Nguyen Minh Tam in Tien Giang Province's Cai Be District has harvested six tonnes of paddy IR 50404 from 0.8ha of rice and sold them at a price of VND4,950 a kilo. He earned a profit of VND15.2 million (US$725).

"Farmers here are happy about the current prices," he said.

Trader Ho Van Hai of Cai Be District said he had never seen the price of the summer-autumn rice crop increase as strongly at the crop-end as it had this year.

A month ago, the price of normal-quality paddy was about VND4,000-4,300 a kilo, he said, adding that in some areas the price was VND3,800-3,900 a kilo.

Traders attributed the price hikes to an increase in Viet Nam's rice exports.

However, many farmers did not benefit from the price increase because they had harvested their paddy and sold them before the price hikes.

Nguyen Van Boi in Cai Lay District's Phu Nhuan Commune in Tien Giang said: "Half of a month ago, many farmers and I harvested paddy and sold fresh paddy at the fields."

Farmers in the Mekong Delta have harvested more than 1.5 million hectares of summer-autumn rice crop with an average yield of 6 tonnes per ha as of last weekend, according to the Southern Plant Protection Centre.

The remaining 320,000ha of the crop are in the blooming stage or have milk-stage grains, mostly in An Giang, Dong Thap, Kien Giang and Tien Giang provinces.

The delta's flood waters are rising and threatening the remaining summer-autumn rice in flood-prone areas, according to the centre.

Rice blast disease and rice leaf blight, among other diseases, have infected more than 3,200ha of summer-autumn rice.

Ho Van Chien, director of the centre, said to protect nearly ripe summer-autumn rice from floods, farmers should consider harvesting them early.

Next year, farmers in flood-prone areas should not plant the autumn-winter rice crop in areas where there is no protection dyke, he said.

The delta farmers have seeded more than 626,300ha of the autumn-winter rice, as of last weekend.

Dong Thap, which is one of the delta's most flooded provinces during the flooding season, has about 3,000ha of nearly ripe summer-autumn rice, which have not been harvested and 30,000ha of newly planted autumn-winter rice.

A large area of the province's rice is estimated to be flooded when flood waters rise high.

This year, the delta's flood season caused by the rising levels of the Mekong River is estimated to reach its peak in the first 10 days of October, according to the Dong Thap Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

Nguyen Van Duong, chairman of the Dong Thap People's Committee, has ordered departments and district authorities to consolidate dykes and encourage farmers to finish harvesting the summer-autumn rice crop before the flood waters rise.

Last month, flood water broke a 20-meter dyke section in Hong Ngu District's Thuong Phuoc 1 Commune, destroying 78ha of summer-autumn rice and causing an output decline of 50 per cent for 61ha of summer-autumn rice.

In Long An Province, farmers in Tan Hung, Vinh Hung and Tan Thanh districts have had to harvest nearly 1,000ha of summer-autumn rice seven to 30 days earlier than scheduled to avoid floods.

Long An farmers have also planted 14,851ha of autumn-winter rice crop. Of the figure, 90 per cent are planted in dyke-protection areas.

In Tien Gang Province's western districts, farmers have nearly completed harvesting the summer-autumn rice crop.

Pham Van Thanh, head of the Cai Be District's Agriculture and Rural Development Bureau, said the district had harvested more than 12,000ha of the 17,000ha of the summer-autumn rice.

Cai Be would complete harvesting the summer-autumn rice today, he said.

Water supply stations remain broken for years

For a decade, people living in many areas of central Quang Ngai Province have had to dig wells or go to nearby streams to procure water.

A recent inspection of the provincial People's Committee has found that up to 148 water supply stations out of 496 in the province do not work.

In Ba To District's Ba Xa Commune, about 1,700 households have had to use stream water because their water supply station has not worked for a decade, Nguoi lao dong (Labourer) newspaper reported.

Ba Xa residents were happy when the provincial Agriculture and Rural Development Department built the VND600 million (US$28,300) water supply station in 2003, recalled resident Pham Van Le.

However, their excitement did not last long because the station broke down after just a few months. Residents submitted repeated requests for repairs to authorised agencies, but they were ignored.

The same situation also happened in Nghia Hanh District's Hanh Duc Commune, where a VND2.2 billion ($103,700) water supply station was built in 2003.

Chairman of the provincial People's Committee Le Viet Chu said that authorised agencies were working to identify the violations of each station.

Inspectors also discovered that agencies in charge of building 107 water supply stations overspent capital. The overspending was estimated at VND1.6 billion ($75,000) and occurred in Ba To, Duc Pho, Minh Long and Tay Tra districts.

Chu said that the overspending had been revoked after the inspection.

Norway helps boost disaster resilience

About 100,000 people in 34 disaster-prone communes in Binh Dinh, Phu Yen and Lao Cai provinces are equipped with the knowledge, skills and facilities required for disaster prevention and response.

The information was revealed at a workshop yesterday on the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) project funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The VND45.3 billion (US$2.1 million) project aims to increase the resilience of target communities against the negative impact of disasters, therefore reducing the loss of human life, property, health and livelihoods.

The project pays special attention to the most vulnerable groups such as women, children and people with disabilities, the elderly and those living in high-risk (disaster-prone) areas.

The project focuses on three main areas: infrastructure and facilities improvement; communication to enhance awareness and promote behavioral change of communities; and capacity building for government officials, Red Cross staff and volunteers in community-based disaster risk reduction.

"Disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation are among the priorities of the Norwegian co-operation with Viet Nam. We are happy to contribute to these efforts," said Ragnhild Dybdahl, Deputy Head of Mission of the Norwegian Embassy in Viet Nam. From 1990 to 2010, Viet Nam ranked sixth among the 10 most disaster-affected countries in the world, according to the United Nations.

PM seeks thorough vaccination coverage

The Prime Minister has asked all provinces and cities nation-wide to ensure that the measles and rubella vaccination campaign covers at least 95 per cent of the children under 14.

The six-month-long campaign, launched recently by the Health Ministry, aims to administer the combined measles and rubella vaccine to around 23 million children for free under the framework of the National Expanded Programme for Immunisation (EPI).

The Prime Minister directed the health ministry to work with the relevant agencies and the provincial and municipal People's Committees to build detailed plans for the vaccination campaign. The ministry must ensure a sufficient supply of vaccines, necessary materials and technical support for all localities.

The PM asked the Ministry of Education and Training to raise the awareness of teachers, children and parents about the importance of vaccination. The Ministry of National Defence was requested to assist the vaccination efforts in the mountainous and remote areas and islands.

As the largest-ever programme in the country, the vaccination campaign is one of the measures being implemented to eradicate measles in Viet Nam by 2017 and rubella by a future date, according to EPI director Nguyen Tran Hien.

As of September 18, the vaccine had been provided safely to more than 28,000 children in Co Kuin District in the Central Highland province of Dak Lak and Vung Tau City of Ba Ria Vung Tau Province during a recent small-scale vaccination drive, added Hien.

The Ministry of Health's statistics showed that there were 4,462 measles cases among nearly 20,000 suspected cases reported from 62 to 63 provinces and cities nation-wide since late 2013. Seventy-six of the total number of measles cases were reportedly mainly in children under the age of 10.

Dong Thap prepares land for large-scale paddy fields

The Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap plans to level 100 square kilometres of land using laser technology to create large-scale paddy fields of thousands of hectares.

The project, which will be carried out until the end of 2015 or early 2016, is an effort of the Dong Thap Province's People's Committee and a South Korean corporation with funds from Official Development Assistance (ODA) from South Korea.

The provincial government expects the project will help farmers become more economically efficient and thus limit their cultivation expenses.

The cleared land will be divided between several paddy fields of 1,000ha each. They will be managed by households in the province's northern districts of Tam Nong, Tan Hong, Thanh Binh, Thap Muoi, and others. The area involves 9,000 households in the districts.

According to the provincial agricultural sector, the province has a total of 225,220 hectares of land for paddy cultivation.

Of the province's total 156,679 households, more than 70 per cent cultivate paddy on less than one hectare of land, and more than 12 per cent of the households own one to two hectares of paddy farmland.

Nguyen Van Duong, chairman of Dong Thap Province's People's Committee, was quoted in Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper as saying that the large fields created favourable conditions for mechanisation in paddy cultivation.

Upon realising the project, expenses for fertiliser, labour and water would be saved.

Productivity and rice quality would be improved, Duong added.

Nguyen Van Cong, director of Dong Thap Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that when farmers agreed to combine their land for large-scale production, rice quality would be improved and enterprises would sign contracts to purchase rice.

With traditional production methods, farmers were forced to sell their paddy to traders at unfair prices, he added.

Currently, there are several cooperatives cultivating paddy on large-scale fields such as Tan Cuong, Tan Tien and others.

For Pham Van Tuan Hai, a farmer who combined his fields for a large-scale farm at Tan Cuong Cooperative, the model has saved him at least VND1 million (US$50) per hectare, while paddy productivity and rice quality has improved.

Construction triggers traffic jams in City

The District 6 in HCM City has faced major traffic congestion due to infrastructure construction for a week now as thousands of vehicles that travel between the city centre and the Western Bus Station each day have been stuck in the area of Ong Buong 1 and 2 bridges from morning until midnight.

With those bridges closed for repairs, residents turned to alternative routes like Tan Hoa and Dang Nguyen Can streets, only to find out that they were also under construction.

"Tan Hoa and Dang Nguyen Can streets are being constructed while Ong Buong 1 bridge is blocked. We have no way to go," a resident in the Ong Buong 1 bridge area told Nguoi Lao Dong (Labourer) newspaper. "It took me nearly one hour to go 1km."

Nearby routes like Hau Giang, Nguyen Van Luong and Minh Phung were also filled with traffic as residents tried to avoid construction sites, especially during rush hours.

Motorbike drivers tried to cut through the small alleys that connect the congested streets in an effort to get out of the area, which caused traffic jams throughout the alley network.

The traffic jam also spread to neighbouring Tan Phu District when an underground electric grid project on Luy Ban Bich Street blocked the road with construction tools.

The HCM City Department of Transport reported the situation to the municipal People's Committee, blaming the city Management Board of Urban Construction and Investment for not implementing agreed-upon traffic measures such as building temporary bridges and putting up warning signs to balance the traffic.

Sweet-toothed insect plagues Tay Ninh

A species of sugarcane stem borer that has appeared for the first time in Viet Nam has damaged large tracts of sugarcane in the south-eastern province of Tay Ninh and is likely to spread further.

The new borer (Chilo tumidicostalis Hampson), which has four stripes and a brown head, multiplies rapidly to up to 100 larvae to a sugarcane, according to the Sugarcane Research Institute.

Sometimes the plant is killed, especially young ones.

The insect, which has a life span of around 50 days, has plagued other countries like Thailand for a long time, the institute said.

First noticed in Tay Ninh in June, it infests mostly the top three joints of a sugarcane.

The province's worst affected areas are in Chau Thanh, Tan Chau, Duong Minh Chau, Tan Bien, Ben Cau and Hoa Thanh districts, and Tay Ninh city.

Chau Thanh is worst hit, with about 3,600ha out of its 5,900ha of sugarcane affected, according to the district Agriculture and Rural Development Bureau.

Pham Dinh Gian, deputy head of the bureau, said the figure was based on sugarcane with withered and yellow tops, and the actual figure could be higher since the tops look green in the early days of infestation.

Vuong Quoc Thoi, deputy director of the Tay Ninh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the stem borer had infested more than 5,000ha out of the province's 21,000ha of sugarcane.

The department was instructing farmers in measures to combat the pest, including spraying of pesticides, he said.

He has called on local sugar mills to buy sugarcane earlier than scheduled.

The harvest was to have begun in November.

Ho Van Chien, director of the Southern Plant Protection Centre, said the central Plant Protection Department had ordered the Tay Ninh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to announce the pest outbreak.

To prevent the spread of the stem borer, other provinces should desist from buying sugarcane saplings for planting from Tay Ninh, he said.

Social welfare programmes address poverty

The Fatherland Front Committee of the northern mountainous province Lao Cai provided houses, worth 60-120 million VND each, for 25 low-income families in Si Ma Cai district this month.

The committee’s Vice Chairwoman Ban Thu Thao said the committee would support the construction of 25 additional houses by November. Since 2012, the province has raised close to 40 billion VND (1.88 million USD) to implement social welfare programmes, she added.

Meanwhile, the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau has been cooperating with the Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk) to provide free milk for more than 59,800 children under the age of six during the 2012-2016 period.

According to the deputy director of the provincial Department of Education and Training, local authorities are working to reduce the proportion of under-weight children and children with stunted growth to less than five percent and one percent, respectively.

On September 19, the Thien Tam Foundation under Vingroup donated 1,000 cows to poor households in Cu Jut district in the Central Highlands province Dak Nong.

Earlier, the group gave 2,000 cows to poor residents in Kon Tum and Dak Lak provinces.

Programme 135 benefits ethnic people in Gia Lai

The Government’s Programme 135, which aims to improve living conditions for rural residents with a particular focus on ethnic minority communities, has proven effective in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai.

The province has spent over 1 trillion VND (47 million USD) out of the 1.5 trillion VND (75 million USD) allocated from the programme fund so far on infrastructure, focussing on upgrading rural roads; building schools and medical stations; and setting up irrigation and water supply systems; thus contributing to socio-economic development in the locality.

The programme also helped ethnic minority groups improve their farming techniques by applying advanced technologies and new cultivation methods, which has boosted their incomes due to higher yields.

With an area of more than 15,500km2, Gia Lai is home to more than 1.3 million people. Forty-five percent are ethnic minorities, mainly Bahnar and J’rai.

In recent years, the Party and Government paid special attention to improving the living conditions for ethnic minority communities in the Central Highlands, Gia Lai in particular, through enhancing policy and implementing a number of measures.

As a result, chronic hunger was eliminated in Gia Lai, and the number of low-income households reduced rapidly.

The communities in the locality are connected via roads accessible for cars, busses and trucks. Every village is connected to the national electricity grid, and over 70 percent of households have access to clean water.

All the villages have access to schools and medical facilities, with 95 percent of school-age children attending school.

Dong Thap prepares land for large-scale paddy fields

The Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap plans to level 100 sq.km of land using laser technology to create large-scale paddy fields of thousands of hectares.

The project, which will be carried out until the end of 2015 or early 2016, is an effort of the provincial People's Committee with funds from Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the Republic of Korea.

The provincial government expects the project will help farmers become more economically efficient and thus reduce their cultivation expenses.

The cleared land will be divided between several paddy fields of 1,000ha each. They will be managed by households in the province's northern districts of Tam Nong, Tan Hong, Thanh Binh, Thap Muoi, and others. The area involves 9,000 households in the districts.

According to the local agricultural sector, the province has a total of 225,220ha of land for paddy cultivation.

Of the province's total 156,679 households, more than 70 percent cultivate paddy on less than one hectare of land, and more than 12 percent own one to two hectares of paddy farmland.

Nguyen Van Duong, Chairman of the provincial People's Committee, was quoted by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper as saying that the large fields create favourable conditions for mechanisation in paddy cultivation.

Upon realising the project, expenses for fertiliser, labour and water will be saved, he said, adding that productivity and rice quality will be improved.

Nguyen Van Cong, Director of the province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that when farmers agree to combine their land for large-scale production, rice quality will be improved and enterprises will sign contracts to purchase rice.

With traditional production methods, farmers were forced to sell their paddy to traders at unfair prices, he added.

Currently, there are several cooperatives cultivating paddy on large-scale fields such as Tan Cuong, Tan Tien and others.

For Pham Van Tuan Hai, a farmer who combined his fields for a large-scale farm at Tan Cuong Cooperative, the model has saved him at least 1 million VND (50 USD) per hectare, while paddy productivity and rice quality has improved.

Village helps youngsters in career path

A ceremony was held on September 19 to kick off construction of a start-up village for youths in Bac Ai mountainous district, central Ninh Thuan province.

Covering over 1,000 ha in Phuoc Dai commune, the village is designed to have a cultural house, a sports ground, a kindergarten, and other necessary facilities.

The project, worth 54 billion VND (2.53 million USD), is expected to be completed by 2018. It is one of the 15 youth start-up villages approved by the Government for the 2013-2020 period.

Once operational, the village will benefit 150 youth households with 540 people who will receive technical assistance in cultivation for sustainable household economic development.

It will also encourage youngsters to take an active part in building new-style rural areas in order to bring a new facelift for the locality, according to Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union’s provincial chapter Chau Thanh Hai.

On the occasion, the chapter presented 20 scholarships, each worth 500,000 VND, to disadvantaged students in Bac Ai district.

Vietnamese social scientists visit Norway

A delegation from the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS), led by its President Nguyen Xuan Thang, met with scientists in Norway from September 17-19 to exchange research results on issues of mutual concern.

The delegation held working sessions with several leading social science institutions, including the Research Council of Norway, the Norwegian Institute for Social Research, the University of Oslo and the Norwegian Business School. It also met with the State Ownership Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

During the meetings, participants discussed a number of issues, including the State’s role in a market economy; global competitiveness; and economic restructuring.

They also exchanged views on reforming State-owned enterprises, reducing State ownership in Norway and developing an ocean-based economy.

The experience gained by the VASS during this visit is expected to help the institution increase its consultative capacity to review the country’s 30 years of renewal and draft a development report for 2014.

Khmer celebrate Sene Dolta Festival

Thousands of Khmer people in the Mekong Delta region are celebrating the Sene Dolta festival, a joyful annual celebration to honour ancestors.

Thanks to the State and Government’s efforts, living conditions have improved for the Khmer community in Tra Vinh province. Many residents are celebrating the festival in their new home, with more than 40,000 Khmer households provided with housing assistance under the Prime Minister’s Decision No.167/TTg.

Additionally, the province invested in building and upgrading irrigation systems, transport infrastructure and schools.

The province aims to provide access to electricity for 18,900 households in remote areas by the end of 2014, increasing the proportion of Khmer households supplied with power from 92.93 percent to 95.76 percent.

Meanwhile, Khmer people in Soc Trang province are enjoying a successful harvest. Prices for rice and farm produce increased significantly, raising their income.

Sene Dolta is one of the largest annual Khmer festivals, along with Chol Chnam Thmay (New Year) and Ooc Oom Bok, a festival that pays tribute to the Moon for good harvests.

During the Sene Dolta festival, Khmer people get together to pay tribute to their ancestors and enjoy traditional songs and dance after a hard year’s work.

This year’s event is held from September 22-24. On this occasion, authorities in the Mekong Delta provinces, home to a large population of Khmer, organised meetings and visited dignitaries and monks at a number of pagodas as well as local Khmer residents in their communities.-

Can Tho General Hospital official operational

The Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on September 21 officially inaugurated a new 500-bed hospital which is hoped to help improve medical treatment as well as healthcare services in the region.

Le Hong Anh, Political Bureau member and standing member of Party Central Committee’s Secretariat, attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

With an investments of 850 billion VND (40.476 million USD), the ten-storey hospital has 18 clinical, five paraclinical departments and 8 functional rooms.

A 19.5 million EUR loan from the Republic of France’s official development assistance (ODA) was used to purchase modern medical equipment for the hospital.

The Can Tho General Hospital is a key project in the government’s plan to develop the national medical network by 2020 with the aim of furthering competence and quality in health care sector.

According to Le Hung Dung, Chairman of Can Tho’s People’s Committee, the city is leading the Mekong Delta region in terms of health care with an average 10,55 doctors and 29.51 hospital beds for every 10,000 residents.

Lawrence S. Ting Fund 2014 awards 473 scholarships

The Lawrence S.Ting Community Support Fund offered 473 scholarships worth VND 4.12 billion to students of 34 high schools, colleges and universities in the country on September 20.

Of these, each secondary school students received VND 4.5 million, and VND 10 million for college & university students during the academic year.

The fund also donated more than VND5 billion to the central and local charitable funds across the country.

The award ceremony 2014 was attended by Ms. Truong My Hoa, former Vice President of Viet Nam and Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Tat Thanh Cang.

In the last 9 years, the Lawrence S. Ting Fund has given nearly 4,330 scholarships with a total amount of VND 30 billion; and 62,252 scholarships worth VND 41 billion through the support of central and local charitable funds and healthcare areas throughout the country.

HCMC puts preschool education top priority

Ho Chi Minh City authority has issued three documents on investment policies for preschool and teachers’ salary. This is one of the city’s moves to show its determination in improving teach quality to kindergarten sector.

One of the good policies is that babysitters will be a regular member of the public kindergartens and  it means babysitters will receive earning from state budget like teachers.

In addition, salary of managers and teaching staffs in state-run preschools will be increased by 25 percent depending on their job.

Teachers’ earning will be surged by 35 percent. Newly graduated teachers will be financially supported.

Preschool education investors who plan to build new facilities are eligible for a loan without interest within 15 years.

This is the first year that HCMC has placed preschool education top priority as Hua Ngoc Thuan, deputy chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, said that the city’s population increases drastically; accordingly though the city allocates VND5 trillion (US$ 235,960,358) per year to build more 1,500 classrooms, it can not still meet the increasing demand.

Trinh Ngoc Thach, Deputy Head of the National Assembly Committee for Culture, Education, Youth, Adolescents and Children appraised the city’s new policies and instructions to preschools.

Currently, the city lacks around 2,000 preschool teachers. It is scheduled to supplement more for the new academic year 2015-2016 newly graduated students is just around 1,567; as a result, the still suffer shortage of teachers in kindergartens.

No report of vaccine side effect in mass immunization campaign

There has not been report on side effects of immunizations in babies and young children in the mass free-of-charge vaccination campaign in the country, said Professor Nguyen Tran Hien, head of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology at a press brief in Hanoi on September 19.

The Ministry of Halth has been carrying out a gratis campaign to vaccinate over 95 percent of children ( 23 million children) in the ages of one to fourteen to reduce infections of measles and rubella.

The vaccination campaign includes three phases. The first phase is from September to October for children from one to five year old; the second phase is from November to December for children from six to ten and the third phase will kick of from January to next February for those from eleven to fourteen.

The campaign has been first launched in four districts including Thanh Son District in the northern province of Phu Tho, Phu Vang District of the central province of Thua Thien-Hue, Cu Kuin District of the highlands province of Dak Lak and Vung Tau city of the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

So far, over 18,000 children in district Cu Kuin and Vung Tau city have received vaccine shots. There is no report of side effects of immunization.

Head of the Ministry of Health’s Preventive Health Department Tran Dac Phu stressed that medical workers had carefully examined children’s health conditions before administering a shot.

After the campaign, the Ministry of Health will officially include measles and rubella vaccine into the National Extended Vaccination Program.

Measles and rubella is an acute, contagious viral infection which can cause serious complications and deaths. It can spread rapidly and 90 percent of children who have contact with measles-suffering peers may catch measles and rubella virus.

Moreover, there is no specific for the two diseases. as per the World Health Organization’s warning, the best way to prevent the two diseases is to vaccinate.

European-funded project improves Ha Nam’s health sector

A capacity development project for the health sector in northern Ha Nam province, sponsored by the European Union and the Government of Luxemburg, has concluded successfully, with local medical stations recording substantial increases in patient numbers.

Since 2009, the project has purchased more than 1,420 pieces of equipment for 116 clinics in the locality, including image-diagnosis machinery, test equipment and essential medical tools, and provided refresher courses for medical staff.

Director of the provincial Department of Health Nguyen Xuan Quy said many staff members paid the course fees themselves to learn about new equipment and treatment methods. He added that local clinics were also expanded to accommodate more patients.

Leaders of grass-roots health units said the measures had improved Ha Nam’s health sector, resulting in more people coming to local clinics for check-ups and treatment rather than travelling to hospitals in Hanoi.

Last year, communal medical centres in Thanh Liem district conducted ultrasound exams for more than 1,200 patients, while thousands of others were examined and treated according to their diagnoses.

The project also benefitted the northern provinces of Bac Ninh and Bac Giang, and 15 other provinces in Vietnam between 2009 and 2014.

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