Vietnam News Agency presents gifts to Agent Orange victims

The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) has presented gifts to Agent Orange victims in the central province of Quang Tri on the anniversary of the 81 day struggle to defend the ancient citadel, which began on June 28, 1972.

The VNA delegation has visited Trieu Phong district to hand over saving books worth VND2 million each to 15 local children. The activity was also held to mark the 65th anniversary of the War Invalids and Fallen Combatants' Day, July 27.

With a total of 15,485 victims, Quang Tri province has the fourth largest Agent Orange population in Viet Nam.

Earlier this month, the VNA and the Association of Agent Orange Victims in the central province of Ninh Thuan funded the building of a house for the family of Barau Thi Tieu of the Raglai ethnic minority group

Tieu made a substantial contribution to Viet Nam's revolution and her son suffers badly from the effects of dioxin. The keys to the new house were handed over on June 13.

The VNA donated the 30 million VND needed to build the house.

HCM City massage parlor fined for offering gay sex

BiBo massage parlor in Ho Chi Minh City has been fined VND20 million ($1,000) for providing sexual services to homosexual male clients.

On June 21, police raided the parlor located on Cong Hoa Street, Tan Binh District and caught red-handed its masseurs without clothes providing male clients with pleasurable sexual services on the second floor.

The parlor’s owner and all masseurs have confessed their wrongdoings to police.  

Initial investigations found BiBo had changed places four times after getting administrative penalties for running male prostitution.

Prostitution of any kind is strictly banned in Vietnam.

First neo-natal lectures broadcast on television

The VinaCapital Foundation and United International Pharma Co Ltd on Saturday launched the first session of a telemedicine lecture series under the former's Survive to Thrive programme, which works to reduce neonatal mortality in central Viet Nam.

This series will focus on topics critical to the survival of a baby like neonatal resuscitation, seizures in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit), adaptation after birth and how to identify perinatal risk factors, and case presentation on seizures.

The lead lecturer for the series is world-renowned neonatologist and long-time VCF training partner Dr Steven Ringer of the Harvard Medical School, who is also the chief of newborn medicine at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, the US.

Other presenters include Dr Khu Thi Khanh Dung, deputy director and chief of the neonatal department at the National Hospital of Paediatrics in Ha Noi, and Dr Truong Thi Nhu Huyen, chief of the neonatal department at the Da Nang Women and Children's Hospital.

It included an interactive broadcast to doctors in Can Tho, Da Nang, Hue, HCM City, and Ha Noi in Viet Nam besides the Philippine capital Manila, and was also available as a world-wide live webcast so that any doctor anywhere could log in and join during the lecture.

Reducing infant mortality, which is a UN Millennium Development Goal, is a priority for Viet Nam and addressing maternal health and infant mortality is a key element of the national health strategy.

Illegal border-crossing scheme busted

Polices and border guards in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province broke an illegal border-crossing scheme on June 25.

Nguyen Van Kinh (46) and Nguyen Duc Loi (52) were caught in an attempt to bring 25 people to Australia on a fishing boat BT 93700TS.

Kinh admitted that he and other man named Tuong had arranged for those who wanted to travel to Australia at a cost of US$11,000-14,000 each.

After collecting money from these people, they bought a fishing boat and hired Loi to sail to Australia. However, the boat was seized just after leaving the port.

HCM City marks World Spirometry Day

The HCM City-based University Medical Centre, in co-ordination with the HCM City Respiratory Society, provided free consulting and screening for respiratory diseases for 200 patients last Saturday marking the World Spirometry Day.

Held once every two years, World Spirometry Day falls on June 27 this year. It aims to promote the diagnosis of lung conditions and raise awareness about lung health, said Associate Professor Dr. Le Thi Tuyet Lan, head of the HCM City Respiratory Society.

Spirometry is a simple breathing test that can help diagnose various lung conditions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other respiratory conditions.

Two electrocuted in noodle plant

A rice noodle producer, 57, and his nephew, 31, died from electrocution yesterday at his workshop in southern Bac Lieu Province's Vinh Loi District.

It's believed the source of electricity was a water pump motor. Investigations are continuing. It was the fifth case of electric shock and the eighth death in the province this year. All were caused by negligence.

More outbreaks of blue-ear pig disease in Binh Duong

More outbreaks of blue-ear pig disease have been reported in Lac An and Tan Dinh communes, Tan Uyen district, Binh Duong province.

The first occurred in Hieu Liem and Tan My communes.

The provincial Department of Animal Health said veterinarians have killed more than 700 pigs and vaccinated 13,000 others in these four communes.

The provincial People’s Committee has authorized the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and Department of Animal Health to take effective measures to contain the disease and prepare enough vaccines for pigs across the province.

Binh Duong is one of large suppliers of pork producers to other localities in southern Vietnam.

Vietnam meets WHO’s TB treatment target

Vietnam is the first nation in Asia to have reached the target of helping more than 85 percent of patients fully recover from tuberculosis (TB) and provide treatment to over 70 percent of diagnosed cases set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The figures were announced at a ceremony to mark the Central Lung Hospital’s 55th anniversary in Hanoi on June 24.  
Health Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Xuyen underlined the leading role the hospital plays in the control and prevention of TB and lung disease.

She said she hopes the hospital will continue cooperating internationally to raise support for the nation’s TB control and prevention programme and apply the latest science and technology to diagnosis and treatment.

Since it was first founded in 1957, the hospital has successfully developed methods of controlling and preventing TB from communal to central levels and has found practical ways of combating TB that are applicable in Vietnam. It now uses 16 out of 19

WHO certified technologies to diagnose TB.

Crimes from 1990s catch up with province official

When Vo Van Sinh fled an arrest warrant 13 years ago, he might have stopped forging government documents, but he didn’t stop working for government.

Police from the Ministry of Public Security recently arrested the fugitive in southern Binh Phuoc Province, where he was in his eighth year as deputy chief inspector at the province’s Department of Planning and Investment.

Federal prosecutors on Friday charged Sinh, 44, with “organizing for others to go abroad illegally.”

Sinh joined a governmental wanted list in 1999, after he allegedly helped falsify paperwork for people seeking work overseas. He earned a commission for each successful application from a man identified only as Xuan, who recruited him and posed as an official at the security ministry’s immigration department.

Although Sinh was detained June 16, the director of his department, Vo Thanh Nam, told reporters that his agency has yet to be notified. When that happens, the department will meet to take action against Sinh, Nam said.

Sinh joined the department in June 1997, a month after police began investigating his activities with Xuan. In 2002, he was admitted to the Communist Party of Vietnam.

A native of central Quang Ngai Province, Sinh graduated from the University of Economics in Ho Chi Minh City, where he went on to work for a number of businesses before joining the department.

His wife also works in Binh Phuoc, as an official at the provincial Department of Education and Training.

Two held for organizing illegal immigration

Police in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau have detained two men for organizing a journey in which 25 people would have gone to Australia illegally by boat.

At 7 pm on June 24, on the seashore behind the house at 73 Tran Phu Street, in Ward 5, Vung Tau City, police caught Nguyen Van Kinh, 46, of central Nghe An Province, and Nguyen Ngoc Loi, 52, of southern Can Tho City, arranging for the group of people to board a fishing boat so they could to go to Australia.

Kinh and Loi have been charged with “organizing for people to go abroad illegally”.

The police also seized their boat, No. BT 93700 TS.

Most of the people attempting to go to Australia are natives of Nghe An and Ha Tinh – another central province.

Kinh confessed to police that he and another man, identified simply as Tuong, planned for the people to leave Vietnam for Australia for US$11,000-14,000 per person.

They bought a 340 CV fishing boat and then upgraded it so it could be used to transport their “customers”.

Kinh hired Loi as a pilot to operate the boat for a fee of VND250 million ($12,000).

Kinh said he does not know where Tuong is living.

The police are continuing their investigation into the case and hunting for Tuong.

Reports prompt overhaul of foreign doctor permits

The Health Ministry is reviewing practitioner certificates for all foreign doctors, after a series of Tuoi Tre investigations uncovered multiple health law violations.

Luong Ngoc Khue, head of the ministry’s Medical Examination and Treatment Department, said on Sunday that inspectors will verify whether certificate holders meet legal requirements.

The heightened scrutiny comes after a string of raids at Chinese clinics in Ho Chi Minh City, where Tuoi Tre had found doctors selling expired or unapproved medicines, practicing without legal authorization, issuing false diagnoses, overcharging patients, and offering services beyond the scope of their certifications.

“Why have some Chinese clinics known in advance that they would be inspected?” Pham Kim Binh, acting chief inspector at the city’s Health Department, said in an interview.

“After the media exposed violations at a certain Chinese clinic, other clinics made preparations to cooperate with inspectors,” Binh said.

When asked if anyone in his department tipped off the medical centers, Binh said, “Never, because if that had been the case, we would have not fully recorded violations at the Chinese clinic that is located at 141 Phan Dang Luu Street in Phu Nhuan District.”

Similarly, Tuoi Tre asked if any officials had shielded the clinics from punishment, despite their repeated infractions.

“I do not know about this,” Binh said. “Inspectors only say what they have seen and known.”

When Tuoi Tre posed the same question to Khue, he instead emphasized that it is up to the ministry – not local health departments – to certify foreign doctors and therefore determine whether they are up to standard.

“Within our authority of management, we will seriously inspect clinics to protect patients from damage caused by infringing Chinese clinics,” Khue said.

He added that current certificates for foreign doctors expire on Dec. 31. In their review, his department will coordinate with the Health Ministry’s Department for Traditional Medicine and Pharmacy.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre