Addressing the UN high-level conference on TB, which was first held by the UN on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly in New York, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said Vietnam would eliminate TB by 2030.
Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien made speech at the UN high-level conference on TB
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The conference, titled "Solidarity to end TB: Global emergency call to cope with a global pandemic," brings together health leaders from UN member nations and partners to represent a commitment to eliminate TB - a disease that has existed for more than 136 years since the world knew TB bacteria.
At the conference, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said that TB is a dangerous pandemic spreading around the world and is the culprit of poverty, inequality, migration and conflict.
Therefore, countries need better health and social welfare systems to end this crisis, Amina Mohammed stressed.
She added that the World Health Organization (WHO) will lead the UN's efforts to support governments as well as cooperate with civil society and all partners to promote the fight against TB.
For her part, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said that Vietnam had achieved the millennium development goal for TB reduction.
However, the country reports up to 13,000 deaths and 126,000 new cases due to the epidemic each year, Tien pointed out.
The Resolution of the Communist Party of Vietnam's Central Committee stated that Vietnam would basically eliminate TB by 2030 and the Vietnamese government has also rolled out a national end TB strategy, which is responsible for all sectors, levels and communities, she added.
Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, on behalf of the Vietnamese government, pledged that Vietnam will successfully implement the national end TB strategy, for the common benefits of Vietnamese people and the whole of humanity.
She also committed that Vietnam will join international efforts to ensure neither individual nor country is left behind in the struggle to eliminate TB in 2030.
