According to Associate Professor, Dr. Le Thi Tuyet Lan – President of Ho Chi Minh City Association of Asthma – Allergy – Clinical Immunology, the prevalence rate of asthma in Vietnam is 4.1%; and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is 4.2%, and this is also the third leading cause of death.
Statistics also show an increasingly serious trend of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease globally due to the increase in the number of smokers and the level of environmental pollution. This is quite a big challenge for the healthcare industry.
“Since the 2000s, we have seen the risk of this group of diseases and proposed to establish the first ACOCU unit (Asthma COPD Outpatient Care Unit – Outpatient management unit for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). at Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital with the desire to contribute to reducing the burden on patients. To date, the ACOCU network has 248 member units across the country, of which 88 are authorized units. established in the program “For Healthy Lungs” – Associate Professor, Dr. Le Thi Tuyet Lan emphasized.
On October 3, the Ho Chi Minh City Association of Asthma – Allergy – Clinical Immunology announced that it had just signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation memorandum to improve the capacity of medical staff and public health care. in the management and treatment of respiratory diseases, especially bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the period of 2024 – 2025. The program aims to improve diagnostic and treatment capacity for medical staff. health, promoting community education programs to contribute to raising people’s awareness of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, proactively seeing doctors for advice, early disease detection and treatment. .
In 2024, the cooperation program will include activities with 3 main goals:
Update knowledge and improve skills in diagnosis, treatment, and management of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, especially for members of Ho Chi Minh City Association of Asthma – Allergy – Clinical Immunology Chi Minh;
Strengthen scientific activities and improve the quality of the asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease management network at existing units, and expand the network at the grassroots level;
Join us in the mission of protecting and caring for patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, reducing the burden of disease and mortality to work towards a healthy community.
Vietnam is one of 9 countries in Asia to first implement the For Healthy Lungs program ( this is AstraZeneca’s multinational initiative to improve the quality of outpatient management of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ). under the leadership of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management – Ministry of Health. The program has been managing more than 170,000 patients, establishing more than 150 standard asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease outpatient clinics.
After the success of phase one (2018-2020), the program has entered phase two from 2021 – 2023 with the expansion of the fields of lung cancer and children’s asthma with the participation of 4 specialized associations: Vietnam Lung Association, Vietnam Respiratory Association, Ho Chi Minh City Joint Branch of Asthma – Allergy – Clinical Immunology. Ho Chi Minh and Vietnam Pediatric Association.
Brennon Dooley