Public health
Health care policy and administration
Hepatitis survey points to nearly 5 million infected
Nearly 5 million people in Myanmar suffer from a form of hepatitis, health officials say. A nationwide survey conducted last year estimated that about 3.3 million people suffer from hepatitis B and a further 1.3 million live with hepatitis C. Keep reading ...
Antimicrobial program begins
The Ministry of Health on 11 January launched a nationwide program aimed at holding back the spread of drug-resistant diseases. Microbes are continuing to evolve resistance to drugs at an alarming rate all over the world, often due to the unsupervised and inappropriate use of antimicrobials, health ...
Budget freeze hurts grantees
Thai Health Promotion Foundation’s (ThaiHealth) budget freeze is causing impacts on its grantees, complained civic groups. As a result of the investigation of the Auditing Committee on Fiscal Expenditure, projects funded by ThaiHealth with grants of more than five million baht a year must seek approval ...
Vietnam suspends vaccination plan after desperate parents go into frenzy
Vietnam has suspended the administration of an infant vaccine nationwide after hundreds of parents, trying to secure shots for their children, caused a chaotic scene in front of a medical center in Hanoi. Tran Dac Phu, head of the Preventive Health Department at the health ministry, has ...
Expert calls for diabetes campaign
Diabetes is harming more people than landmines, a leading expert says. U Tint Swe Latt of the Myanmar Diabetes Association told The Myanmar Times that most amputations of hands and legs resulted from the disease, and not from the landmines that still litter parts of the ...
Nghe An culls thousands of chickens to prevent bird flu outbreak
Health authorities in the central province of Nghe An have culled more than 2,365 chicken after many of them were found infected with two dangerous strains of bird flu. Keep reading ...
Huaphan to receive new provincial hospital
Huaphan province plans to build a new provincial hospital with currently the eight-storey building being designed, a hospital official reported recently. The Vietnamese side recently signed a contract with provincial authorities to conduct survey and design, while provincial authorities provide information, Mr Muisy Sornamsarn told Vientiane ...
Number of AIDS deaths among young Asians doubles over past decade: U.N.
The estimated number of adolescents dying of AIDS in the Asia Pacific region has more than doubled since 2005, experts said on 30 November, warning of a “hidden epidemic”. UNICEF urged Asian countries to improve teenagers’ access to testing, saying many young people do not know ...
Unprescribed antibiotics is available anywhere in Vietnam: survey
A survey by the health ministry has found that misuse of antibiotics is rampant, with most pharmacies not requiring prescriptions to sell them. The ministry’s Examination and Treatment Department said 98 percent of drugstores in urban areas and 91 percent in rural areas sell antibiotics without ...
Overuse of antibiotics killing Thais at high rate
Up to 38,000 Thais could be dying from antibiotic-resistant bacteria annually because of overprescription and the prevalence of the drugs in food and the water supply, research has found. Drug System Monitoring Mechanism Development Centre manager Niyada Kiatying-Angsulee said her research found Thailand had a worryingly high ...
