Dialogue Event Overview

Dialogue Event

Non-communicable, infectious, and environmental disease interfaces: challenges and opportunities for research and intervention in Vietnam

Venue: Pullman hotel, 40 CAT LINH STREET, DONG DA DISTRICT, HANOI – VIETNAM

T. +844-3733 0688 – F. +844-3733 0888

Organizing Team: Hanoi School of Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, and Novartis Foundation

Like many former low income countries, Vietnam has seen a rapid epidemiologic transition: while infectious diseases remain a public health challenge, non-communicable diseases have also emerged. The transition is also characterized by increasing urbanization and a change in lifestyle due to additional pressures on environmental quality. The Vietnam report of the Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) ranks stroke, ischemic heart disease, liver cancer, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPD) as the four leading causes of death, responsible for, in total, >150’000 death per year. After dietary risks and smoking, household and ambient air pollution (taken together) has become the third-ranking risk factor of the Vietnam disease burden. In Vietnam, with 78 cases per 100’000 population (2011), dengue incidence has steadily increased to become an important vector born infectious disease, resulting in some 70’000 cases every year not further specified in the GBD. Other emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases such as avian influenza H5N1, pandemic influenza, cholera, hand-foot-mouth disease, measles, and rabies are of public health importance in Vietnam.

When considering all these challenges in a systems approach, one has to emphasize that the interaction of non-communicable, infectious, and environmental stressors in the etiology and course of diseases are poorly understood in Vietnam. The common knowledge, however, is that the poor are the most disadvantaged in suffering from “diseases of poverty” which today should also include a range of chronic diseases with disastrous economic consequences on patients and their families. It is clear that further assessments and research are needed to foster evidence- and needs-based operational decisions in health promotion and the planning of prevention strategies and health systems.

To plan and prioritize further steps related to interventions, prevention, and research, the project partners Hanoi School of Public Health (HSPH), Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) and the Novartis Foundation (NF) conduct this Dialogue Event in Hanoi. The Dialogue Event aims at bringing different stakeholders together to discuss, identify and prioritize key issues of public health at the interface of infectious, non-communicable and environmental diseases in Vietnam. The program includes expert input, current best practices, and discussion platforms in the plenary as well as in parallel workshops.

Contact:

Nguyen-Viet Hung

Hanoi Shool of Public Health, Center for Public Health and Ecosystem Research (HSPH/CENPHER), 138, Giang Vo, Ba Dinh, Hanoi, Vietnam

T: (+84) 4.62733162, F: (+84) 4.62733172, Email: nvh@huph.edu.vn

Web : cenpher.huph.edu.vn