Young people suffering from tuberculosis are increasing day by day

According to the 2023 global tuberculosis report of the World Health Organization (WHO), Vietnam is a country with a high tuberculosis burden.

In 2018, from 16/30 countries with a high burden of tuberculosis and 15/30 countries with the highest burden of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the world, Vietnam moved to rank 11 out of 30 countries with the number of people with tuberculosis. highest globally, and ranked 11th among the 30 countries with the highest burden of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the world. According to experts, there are still 40% of people with tuberculosis in the community who have not been detected and treated, especially young people with tuberculosis are on the rise.

While studying in grade 12, a female student at LTMQ (Hanoi) suddenly felt tired and had a prolonged cough. She bought medicine to take but it never got better. Some time later, the female student felt sick and her health deteriorated. When she was admitted to the Department of Respiratory Tuberculosis - Central Lung Hospital, the whole family was shocked when she was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis. X-ray images of the female student showed complete damage to both lungs, proving that Had to suffer from the disease for a long time but it was not detected. The female student went through a battle against tuberculosis that lasted 2 months in the hospital and 6 months of outpatient treatment before her health stabilized. From not being able to sit up, not being able to change clothes, and not being able to take care of personal activities, the female student was able to jog, her lung damage miraculously recovered, and the tuberculosis bacteria were no longer active.

Similarly, young man LAH (24 years old, Hoang Mai, Hanoi) also showed signs of weight loss, cough with phlegm for more than 1 year, once coughed a little blood mixed with phlegm but did not go to the doctor. When he suddenly coughed up blood and had difficulty breathing, his family took him to the Central Lung Hospital for examination. At the Emergency Department, the patient continued to cough up a lot of blood, had respiratory failure, hypoxemia, which was life-threatening, and was quickly treated by doctors, intubated, and put on a ventilator. Dr. Nguyen Van Truong, Deputy Head of the Emergency Department, said that this is a case of obstructive hemoptysis due to pulmonary tuberculosis, requiring bronchial embolization to stop the bleeding and early use of tuberculosis drugs. Coughing up blood is a common condition in emergency care for tuberculosis and lung diseases in our country, with a high mortality rate.

Previously, tuberculosis often occurred in adults, but now it is increasing in children and young people. The Central Lung Hospital once recorded 4 students staying together and all 4 of them infected with tuberculosis. The National Children's Hospital also recorded many tuberculosis cases in hospitalized children. This is an alarming problem. According to the report of the National Tuberculosis Program, in 2023, Vietnam has detected 106,086 cases of tuberculosis, an increase of 2,282 patients, equivalent to an increase of 2.2% over the same period in 2022 and an increase of 27,151 (34). .4%) compared to the same period in 2021. Detection of multidrug-resistant TB in 2023 is 3,775 patients, 7.8%, 45.8% and 9.5% higher than in 2020, 2021, 2022 respectively. .

Experts are worried that the tuberculosis epidemic in Vietnam is still very severe, especially the increase in drug-resistant tuberculosis. The results of drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment in 2023 will only reach 72.3% of the planned target; The treatment dropout rate is still high while the short-term standard regimen has been expanded across the country.

According to Senior Dr. Dinh Van Luong, Director of the Central Lung Hospital, the number of tuberculosis patients detected, treated and reported annually in Vietnam is only about 60%, remaining nearly 40%. TB patients in the community have not been detected and treated or have not been reported. This is very dangerous because TB is a contagious disease, a person in a family with TB can infect people living in the same house and neighbors. In particular, child TB detection activities are still limited, the number of child TB cases detected is still low compared to expectations and compared to WHO estimates. Experts say that it is very difficult to reach and detect 40% of tuberculosis patients in the community without the participation of the people.

According to WHO, in 2022, the number of newly discovered tuberculosis globally will be 7.5 million and also in this year, tuberculosis will cause about 1.43 million deaths. Global tuberculosis eradication still faces many obstacles and requires more efforts from countries. Vietnam has set a goal of ending tuberculosis by 2035. To do this, according to Dr. Dinh Van Luong, we still have a lot of work to do, and even have to do it right away, quickly with methods that bring benefits. best effect. Many experts also believe that the most important thing is to detect 40% of people with latent TB in the community for testing and treatment, cutting off the source of infection. Currently, 51/63 provinces and cities nationwide have established Lung Hospitals, Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Hospitals.

* SOURCE: https://cand.com.vn/y-te/nguoi-tre-mac-benh-lao-ngay-mot-gia-tang-i726346/