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Good morning, and xin chào quý vị
Thank you to the National Lung Hospital and the National TB Programme for hosting today’s important event.
It is an honour to join you for the 2025 Annual Review and the launch of Viet Nam’s National TB Strategic Plan 2026-2030. This milestone moment reflects both ambition and determination - to confront one of the world’s oldest and deadliest diseases with renewed resolve.
Despite being both preventable and curable, tuberculosis remains one of the world’s biggest infectious killers. Every day globally, more than 3,400 people die, and nearly 30,000 people fall ill with this disease.
From a global perspective, Viet Nam stands at a critical juncture. It remains among the 30 countries with the highest TB burden worldwide. Each year, around 180,000 people develop TB, and tragically, about 12,000 people still die. Over the past decade, the total burden has declined slightly – but I think we can all acknowledge that the numbers remain too high.
And yet, there has been real progress.
For instance, Viet Nam is doing well in TB detection and treatment outcomes.
Over the past decade, 90% of people being treated are successfully cured. Case notifications have increased, including from private providers and non‑TB specific services, and screening has been expanded among high‑risk populations.
In 2025, Viet Nam reported its highest ever number of notified TB cases - 119,000 - reflecting improved reach of services. This is an important achievement: increased detection means more people with TB are being identified and treated.
Several policy milestones have made this progress possible. The approval of the National Target Programme, which includes funding for TB, strengthens national ownership and sustainability. The upgrade of the national TB commission signals strong political leadership.
And crucially, Resolution 72 marks a turning point for TB control in Viet Nam.
Enabling free annual health check‑ups for citizens creates a powerful platform to screen for people at risk and detect TB earlier - especially among those who have mild or no symptoms. This is important, because up to 40 percent of cases remain undetected.
This makes Viet Nam’s World TB Day theme for this year - “Integrating TB detection into routine health check‑ups for every citizen” – especially significant. Given how difficult TB is to detect, especially in its early stages, integration is essential to finding more people, starting treatment earlier, and saving lives.
Viet Nam has also demonstrated approaches that can serve as models for others - particularly active case finding using chest X‑ray combined with GeneXpert. There is huge potential for these strategies to be scaled further, especially at commune health station level.
However, important challenges remain. Preventive treatment coverage for young children is still too low. Health system restructuring and supply constraints continue to strain TB services. And financing is a major gap – especially in the context of declining international donor support.
To help address these challenges, we recommend that implementation of Resolution 72 include a focus on clear guidance for health workers, adequate diagnostic capacity, trained staff at primary care level, and sustainable, domestic public financing - through the state budget and social health insurance.
The National TB Strategic Plan 2026–2030 provides a strong roadmap. WHO welcomes its focus on accelerating active case finding, strengthening TB services within primary health care, expanding public–private service delivery models, increasing preventive treatment, and transitioning TB services to full public funding.
Of course, WHO is proud to continue joining hands with the Government of Viet Nam in this work to build a TB-free future. Please count on our unwavering support.
Xin cảm ơn rất nhiều.