Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam is chairman of the National Committee for Tuberculosis Prevention and Control (Photo: VNA)

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son and Vice President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee Truong Thi Ngoc Anh were assigned as deputy chairpersons of the committee.

Members of the committee include leaders and officials of different ministries and organisations such as the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Red Cross Society.

The committee’s duty is to help PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc to give guidance to concerned organisations in tuberculosis prevention and control towards eliminating the disease by 2030.

It will also propose with PM Phuc measures and action programmes related to the disease.

The Ministry of Health is responsible for ensuring work facilities for the committee.

Around 12,000 people die from tuberculosis each year in Vietnam - that’s one and half times higher than those killed in traffic accidents over the same period, according to the National Lung Hospital.

Vietnam is in the world’s top 30 countries with high tuberculosis rates. The country ranks 16th in the number of tuberculosis patients and 13th in the rankings of drug-resistant tuberculosis patients. Seventy percent are of working age (between 15 and 55).

It is estimated that Vietnam still has 124,000 newly detected cases each year./.VNA