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Social
News Headlines 10/7
A July 8
meeting in
Delegates at the
event reported that Vietnam has the highest abortion rate in the Southeast
Asian region, and its birth rate among adolescents aged 15–19 years is rather
high (46/1,000).
They pointed out
that
They attributed
According to the
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), adolescent pregnancy results in
negative consequences for adolescent girls, both physically and spiritually.
IBM Vietnam
donates modern learning kits
IBM Vietnam on July
8 made a generous donation of 40 sets of school materials “Young Explorers”
to KidSmart for the benefit of 24 kindergartens and 7 social welfare centres
across the country.
The KidSmart
software is designed to stimulate the children’s creativity, ability of
thinking, problem solving and community integration.
It also features
fun and interactive games that are ideal for young patrons age three up to
seven and is designed to stimulate the children’s creativity, ability of
thinking, problem solving and community integration.
Since 2001, IBM has
donated 537 such learning kits worth more than US$1.6 million in total for
To date, IBM has
granted over US$106 million in support of millions of poor students in more
than 60 countries and territories around the world.
*** Also on July 8,
representatives from the National Fund for Vietnamese Children (NFVC)
presented gifts to children with harelips and cleft palates at Hanoi-based
Vietnam-Cuba hospital.
The child patients
received free surgeries following a charity programme jointly organized by
the NFVC and Operation Smile International, which has pledged support for
over 1,000 Vietnamese children this year.
By June 30, as many
as 806 child patients were provided with free medical check-ups and
treatment, including 508 cases receiving free surgeries worth approximately
VND3 billion.
Long An
intensifies support for Cambodian provinces
The Mekong Delta
It has helped Prey
Veng build a bridge spanning the Cai Co canal at the Tan Hung-Svai A Ngoong
auxiliary border gate. The bridge is expected to be completed in 2015.
It has also trained
eight public servants from the two Cambodian localities in the Vietnamese
language and agricultural techniques as well as granted scholarships to
Cambodian students of Vietnamese origin at the provincial
Chairman of the
provincial People’s Committee Do Huu Lam said Long An will continue
maintaining and developing all-round relations with Cambodia, organising
charitable activities and accelerating the implementation of cooperation
agreements with the two Cambodian provinces in the fields of economics,
socio-culture, security and defence.
Hunt for
seeds ruins forests
Like a plague,
hunters are swarming local forests. The devastation left in their wake isn't
from a search for gold, or for diamonds.
It's all because of
a nut.
The price of uoi
tree (or malva nut tree) seeds has spiked recently, and people have flocked
to the central provinces of Quang
Once harvested, uoi
tree seeds are used in traditional Chinese medicine to ease gastrointestinal
disorders and soothe soar throats.
Favourable weather
conditions have led to particularly fruitful harvests this year, according to
Phan Tuan, head of the provincial Forest Management Department. As the market
price of uoi seeds rose, people began rushing to the protected mountain
forests of Nam Tra My, Bac Tra My, Nam Giang and Phuoc Son districts.
At present, a kg of
uoi seeds is worth between VND 250,000-300,000 (US$11.7-14), an increase of
VND50,000 or $2.3 over crops in recent years.
People can collect
tens of kilograms of seeds from individual uoi trees, which are native to
But what has been
good for foragers, has been havoc for the region's forests. Many decades-old
trees were cut down, Nguyen Thanh Tam, Nam Tra My district's police chief,
told VnExpress online.
There's been an
even higher price for this high-value natural medicine. Tam said the illegal
logging of uoi trees has caused injuries and even deaths as people are
crushed under falling trunks.
Provincial
authorities have issued an urgent order for local forest protection agencies,
forest management boards and police to co-ordinate a crackdown on illegal
logging of uoi trees. Local leaders are also calling for more patrols and
checkpoints to prevent the transportation and trade of uoi seeds.
Last month, local
authorities handled 72 cases of illegal logging and transport of uoi seeds,
seizing more than 7.7 tonnes of seeds.
Ha Noi to
upgrade workers' skills and improve veterinary standards
The city's
Department of Animal Health is organising courses to help poorly trained
veterinary workers improve their skills in caring for animals, ensuring food
safety and preventing food borne illnesses.
Can Xuan Binh,
deputy director of Ha Noi's Department of Animal Health, said the city's
veterinary workers were ill-equipped and too few in number to fight or prevent
epidemics.
The city now has
584 animal health units in communes, wards and towns, but lacks 54 heads for
the units, according to the department.
There are also
fears that many of those senior veterinary professionals may be under
qualified. Only 16 per cent of the unit heads have university degrees, less
than a quarter of them have college diplomas, and about 3 per cent are not
trained in animal health.
"Many of them
are embarrassed when making reports or implementing epidemic prevention
measures," said Binh.
Due to the shortage
of veterinary workers, some districts' animal health units employ retired
medical workers to fill that gap.
The city has more
than 2,400 veterinary workers, but nearly a third of them are over age.
Moreover, Binh
said, some animal health units in suburban districts are lacking
refrigerators for vaccines, safety work wear, and other essential
professional equipment.
City officials are
hopeful the new program will improve the overall quality of veterinary care
in the capital. Training courses will stress animal health regulations, as
well as food hygiene and safety laws.
The trainees will
be taught to monitor livestock and poultry epidemics, and ways to recognise
and treat dangerous diseases such as bird flu, foot-and-mouth, and blue ear
in pigs.
Everyday Ha Noi
uses thousands of tonnes of livestock and poultry, and 40 per cent of the
meat was transported from neighbouring provinces, according to the Ha Noi
Department of Animal Health.
The city has more
than 3,000 slaughter houses.
Hospitals
can offer better service: MoH
Central hospitals
offer better services than provincial and district hospitals, but are still
only performing at an average level, according to a recent Ministry of Health
(MOH) assessment.
Based on a set of
83 criteria issued by the MOH in December, the assessment aimed to improve
hospital services and increase patient satisfaction. The criteria relate to
patient care, workforce development, professional quality, quality
improvement and professional knowledge.
Last year,
hospitals carried out self-assessments in which they ranked their performance
on a scale of five, from bad to very good, using these criteria. The ministry
sent inspectors this year to re-assess them.
The results from
self-assessments and the ministry's assessments did not vary considerably,
said Nguyen Trong Khoa, deputy director of the MOH's Medical Services
Administration, adding that the average score was 3.18 out of 5.
He portrayed this
fact in a positive light, telling Tuoi tre (Youth) newspaper, "We
consider the moderately good level a foundation to strive for good and very
good levels."
The most common
problem among the hospitals was overcrowding.
Pham Manh Than,
head of the General Planning Division at Ha Noi's Saint Paul Hospital, said
that the hospital tried to create better conditions for waiting patients, but
was limited to repairing the health examination ward and adding chairs and
fans. Other criteria would take a long time to meet, such as patients not
having to share their beds or having soap to wash their hands.
The MOH intends to
add 20-40 criteria related to vaccination safety and capacity for coping with
epidemics to the list. Some hospitals also proposed criteria related to
professional quality and professional knowledge.
Investment
slated for telemedicine
The Ministry of
Health this year will give priority to more funds for
During a visit to
the University Medical Centre yesterday, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim
Tien said that the two hospitals' doctors would provide professional
treatment advice to satellite hospitals through telemedicine.
With use of IT and
imaging networks, the city hospitals carrying out the satellite hospital
programme will no longer need to send many doctors to those sites outside
The University
Medical Centre, which was initially reluctant to carry out the programme for
fear that it would lose too many doctors, will implement the programme this
year.
Tien suggested that
the centre chose the Mekong Delta because most outpatients who visit the
centre were from there.
Many of the
patients take a bus at dawn to come to the medical centre and wait for health
exams.
Tien said that it
was also important that
The centre, for
instance, starts health examination at 6 am, and examines and treats nearly
5,000 outpatients every day.
The number of
outpatients a day at
Tien asked the
three centrally managed hospitals to pay more attention to expanding their
health examination facilities to meet demand.
Yesterday, Tien
also checked Thong Nhat, Cho Ray and the University Medical Centre's progress
on implementing their projects to reduce patient overload.
Shipping
route to ease pressure on roads
A coastal shipping
route connecting northern
Deputy Minister of
Transport Nguyen Van Cong said the sea route would reduce high inventories at
ports, in addition to restructuring
About 70 per cent
of goods are transported via roads, according to director of the ministry's
Marine Department Nguyen Nhat. After the minister stepped up vehicle weight
inspections in April, road transport became up to ten times more expensive
than waterway transport.
Nhat said that the
move also increased inventory levels at Hai Phong, Nghe An and Ha Tinh ports
as well as the number of ships docked at other ports.
"Sea
transportation takes three times longer than road transportation, but freight
charges by sea are usually one-fifth or one-sixth of those by road," he
said.
Vice chairman of
National Committee for Road Safety Khuat Viet Hung said that the coastal
shipping route would help reduce pressure on roads because about 300,000
container trucks would be replaced with ships. The route could also boost the
use of inland ports and seaports, Hung said.
Roughly
500,000-600,000 tonnes of goods each month are transported between the
provinces on the new route (Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Thai Binh, Nam Dinh, Ninh
Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Binh).
Director of Thai Ha
Shipping Joint Stocks Company Tran Duc Lanh said the route was best for
short-distance shipping and recommended legal changes that would allow inland
waterway vessels to be upgraded to seaway vessels.
Illegal
sand miners sentenced to jail
The People's Court
of the Mekong Delta
The Ngu Binh Co.,
Ltd was caught illegally mining river sand in Hong Ngu District in October,
2012. Further investigation revealed that former leaders of the district had
given the green light to the company to carry out the operations over a
prolonged period, causing an estimated lost of more than VND12 billion
(US$571,000).
Duong Tan Quoc,
former CEO of Ngu Binh Co., Ltd, was given one and a half years behind bars
for violating regulations on the exploitation of natural resources. The other
defendants received up to over a year for the same charge.
Scholarships
awarded to poor students
A total of 400
disadvantaged high school students with high study performances from eight
cities and provinces have received Chung Mot Uoc Mo (A Shared Dream)
scholarships each worth VND3 million (US$143).
The VND2.2 billion
($104,800) scholarship programme will fund the one-year tuition fee if the
students pass the university entrance examinations in the fields of business
management, marketing, accounting and engineering.
The annual
programme, which has been organised by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper and Siam Cement
Group for eight consecutive years, aims to assist poor students to continue
their schooling.
Northern
highway upgrade to resume
Work to upgrade a
section of National Highway 38 running through the
The
Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) project is backed by Vinaconex import company
and Licogi 16 at a cost of nearly VND1.7 trillion (US$80.9 million).
When completed in
the second quarter of next year, the 32.8km, four-lane road will make it easier
to link traffic from industrial parks, seaports and airports in the two
provinces.
At present, the
road is in poor condition and narrow and is unable to deal with increased
traffic from
Deputy Prime
Minister Hoang Trung Hai said that the financing of National Highway 38 would
reduce dependence on State budget money which could be spent on other
infrastructure projects.
He asked Bac Ninh
and Hai Duong authorities to provide fair compensation to households
displaced by the work to ensure the project was finished on time.
In 2010, the
transport ministry approved a project to upgrade National Highway 38 running
through the two provinces with funding of VND541 billion from State and
provincial budgets.
The work began in
Februray, 2011, but until April, 2014, just 30 per cent of the work was
completed due to a financial shortage.
Thus, the ministry
and Bac Ninh Province People's Committee proposed Prime Minister to put the
project under a BOT contract.
Power bills
were not miscalculated: ERA
There were no
errors detected during the recording and calculation of power usage by
consumers, said Dinh The Phuc, deputy head of the Electricity Regulatory
Authority (ERA) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
In responding
question on the jump in electricity bills last month, Phuc told the press
meeting held in Ha Noi yesterday that ERA checked electricity counters with
presence of customers.
He said customers
whose complaints on the sudden rise in their bills agreed with the conclusion
and checked their electrical appliances.
"The new
electricity retail prices that will apply to six price levels instead of the
seven levels doesn't made the prices increased," he added.
The new
calculation, which took effect from the beginning of June, stipulates that
power tariffs for households consuming 0-50kWh will be 92 per cent of the
average price, 95 per cent for 51-100kWh, 110 per cent for 101-200kWh, 138
per cent for 201-300kWh, 154 per cent for 301-400kWh and 159 per cent for
more than 401kWh.
Deputy minister Do
Thang Hai added that 76 per cent of households claimed on the rise had a
power consumption of more than 400kWh. Of which there was no households had
consumption of less than 100kWh.
"If households
consume power of over 400kWh, the bills would be higher," Hai said.
Nguyen Quang Trung,
deputy general director of Ha Noi Electricity Corporation (EVN Ha Noi) said
the hot weather, that included three heat waves hitting the
Some districts like
Hoang Mai and Dong Da, power consumption in June was 40-60 per cent higher
than that of May.
He said the average
power consumption last month was 42.7kWh a day, rising 23.4 per cent over
May.
Alone in June, the
number of customers which had power consumption 1.5 times higher than May in
Ha Noi was 686,336 and accounted for 34 per cent of the total. Around 348,000
households or 17 per cent of the total had power consumption in June double
than the previous month.
The ERA also said
the electricity sector would ensure power supply for production and living in
July.
Vietnam
works to manage, eliminate POPs
The Environment
Administration under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment on
July 8 held a conference to launch a project to update
The two-year
project, funded by the United Nations Development Programme’s Global Environment
Facility (GEF), has been conducted since 2013 with the aim of realising
According to Dr.
Nguyen Anh Tuan from the Pollution Control Department, the project includes
five components, including stocktaking POPs, assessing the national capacity
in implementing the convention, and defining priorities of the plan.
The plan, to be
updated with a system of actions and synchronic measures to better meet
requirements of the convention, will be submitted to the Prime Minister for
approval, and then sent to the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm
Convention.
Tran The Loan,
deputy head of the Pollution Control Department under the Environment General
Department, noted that
The country will
also renew the plan with more effective policies, laws, management
institutions, technologies and financial sources, while designing a roadmap
to implement it, thus contributing to protecting people’s health and the
environment from POPs, he said.
Signed in
Fire sweeps
through 10ha of forest in Thua Thien-Hue
A fire gutted
completely 10 hectares of planted forest in Quang Loi commune, Quang Dien
district, the central
The forests, aged
nearly 10 years old, were planted on sand.
Scorching weather
and strong wind were attributed to the quick spread of the fire, said Le
Truong Luu, Vice Chairman of the Thua Thien Hue People’s Committee.
According to local
residents, the fire might be caused by human carelessness.
Central localities
are facing a high risk of forest fire due to hot weather in the dry season,
which normally lasts from May to August.
Last year, 250
fires occurred across the country, ruining 965ha of forest.
Clean water
reaches 72 pct of
More than 2.93
million people in rural and mountainous areas in the Central Highlands of Tay
Nguyen, or 72 percent of these areas’ total population, now have access to
clean water, according to the Steering Committee for Tay Nguyen.
Dak Lak is leading
the five Central Highlands provinces in this field, with 81 percent of all
its people having clean water for their daily use.
The result is
attributed to great investment in drilling wells and building water storage
facilities and pipeline systems in areas where local people previously had to
depend on natural streams and rivers for water. Dak Lak province alone built
90 water supply systems and drilled more than 220,000 wells in remote areas
in Ea Sup, Cu M’gar, Krong Ana, Ma D’rak and Buon Don districts, bringing
clean water to each household.
From now to 2020,
Central Highlands provinces will strive to raise the rate of households
having access to clean water to 85 percent in rural areas and 100 percent in
urban ones.
The Central
Highlands encompasses the provinces of Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Lam Dong, Gia Lai
and Kon Tum with a population of over 5.4 million people, 25.7 percent of
them ethnic minority.-
Showers,
thunderstorms spread across southern region
The southern region
will see showers and thunderstorms over wide areas on July 9, according to
the
Thunderstorms might
be accompanied by vortex and gusts. Highest temperatures swing between 29-32
degrees Celsius. Rain will begin to abate from July 10.
While
It will be sunny in
daytime and showery at night in the northern region. Temperatures will
average 32-35 degrees.
However, strong
southwesterly winds have stirred mid and southern
Reports see
economic growth up in Can Tho, down in Hanoi
Economic growth
rate reached 8.96 percent in Can Tho City in the first half this year, up
0.38 percent year on year while it was 7.4 percent in
According to Le
Hung Dung, chairman of the People’s Committee in Can Tho City, the city’s
Consumer Price Index increased 5.89 percent and export turnover hit US$583
million.
He was reporting to
Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh at a meeting to the city leaders on local
socioeconomic conditions, held on July 8.
In the first six
months, the city provided jobs to nearly 22,300 people, accounting for 45
percent of plan, said Dung.
Can Tho City should
continue to promote effective production modals in order to linking between
production and market demand and applying science and technology, Mr. Ninh
said.
The city should
also intensify activities to expand the market, fight against smuggling and
counterfeits, control inflation amidst volatile petrol prices in the world,
and ensure security, national defense and social safety and order.
Most key economic
industries saw the growth rate lower than that in the same period last year
and the city’s plan.
Vaccination
campaign to be administered in schools
The Ministry of
Education and Training (MOET) has asked its sub-departments to coordinate
with local medical clinics to broadcast the need of vaccination to the
community.
Following the
Ministry of Health’s requirement on vaccination campaign of measles and
rubella in schools, MOET has ordered to enhance scattering the importance of
immunization against measles and rubella for students and teachers across the
country.
The education
authority also encouraged parents to participate in the vaccination.
The People’s
Committee in
After discusses
with the Ministry of Education and Training, the Committee issued the
guideline asking the Education Department to stop the program which has
not been approved by the city Committee and make assessment of the available
program, Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education
(IGCSE), which was allowed by the Ministry in state-run schools.
The city's
Education Department was asked to make a detailed assessment of every aspect
of IGCSE. Moreover, it has to explain the reason to stop the approved program
and how it affects students and parents’ interest.
Before, on June 23,
the Department and EMG Education Corporation announced that the Department
had talked with the UK's Ministry of Education on the implementation of the
new English teaching program called “Integrated program”, a new curriculum
for teaching and learning Maths, Science and English at schools in HCMC, and
the program would be piloted in the academic year 2014-2015.
Two following days,
the Department sent guidelines for registering the program to schools in the
city.
However, on June
30, the British Embassy in Vietnam issued a press release quoting British
Consul General Douglas Barnes that there is no agreement between the
Department for Education (DfE) of the Standard and Testing Agency (STA) from
the UK with the city's Education Department and /or EMG to supply curriculum
test materials or to qualify assure any aspect of teaching delivered in HCMC
nor any official talk has been made to DfE or STA to discuss such arrangement.
Baby girl
in Dong Thap dies of suffocation not vaccine: Medical expert
The death of a two
month old baby girl is caused by breathing failure owing to a liquid in lung,
said Dr. Nguyen Ngoc An, director of the Department of Medicine in the Mekong
delta province of Dong Thap.
Two month old girl
Vo Thi Bao Tram in Truong Xuan Commune in Thap Muoi District was taken to
local medical clinic for vaccination on July 7. 35 neonates were administered
vaccine shots at the clinic on the day.
At 2 PM, Tram suffered
high fever and her parents took her to the local clinic. She was given the
medicine to reduce fever. However, at 1.30 Am on July 8, she was hospitalized
but doctors said that she died before.
Province health
authority coordinated with Pasteur Institute in
Encephalitis
kills 5 in Vietnam
Encephalitis is
plaguing in 31 provinces and cities in
The disease mainly
affects children under the age of 15 yet hospitals also received
some adults suffering encephalitis in last months. There have been an
increasing number of Japanese encephalitis children.
A 20 year old
female patient in Dong Anh,
Dr. Nguyen Trung
Cap, deputy head of the Emergency Ward, said that this patient was
experiencing convulsion fits, feeble four limbs and she was put on breathing
machine. It is anticipated that she can't survive and she would
suffer after-effects on the brain nerve and kinetic system.
Dr. Nguyen Trung
Cap added that two more female patients in
Dr. Cap advised
people not to neglect the disease though Japanese encephalitis rarely occurs
in adults. However, medical experts are worried as there are three
severe Japanese encephalitis cases on adults.
Soon after they
have lasting high fever, headache along with vomiting, people should go to
hospital in order to minimize after-effects.
129 children in the
Dr. Do Thien
Hai, deputy head of the Infection Sector, said that from end of
June, Japanese encephalitis children increased dramatically.
Noticeably, the proportion of infection cases this
year is 20 percent higher than previous years.
Dr. Tran Dac Phu,
who heads the Department of Preventive Medicine, said that encephalitis due
to virus including Japanese Encephalitis is a fatal disease as it is caused
by various viruses.
Signs of the
disease include high fever and other symptoms relating to injuries in the
central nervous system including headache, sensitivity to light, general
malaise, stiff neck, stiff back, vomiting, confusion, memory loss, seizures,
paralysis and coma.
Children aged below
15 are most vulnerable to the disease. Encephalitis can appear all year
round, but its peak times are in June, July and August,
According to the Department
of Preventive Medicine' latest statistic, of the total number of
patients, 65.8 percent were in the northern region, while 12. 3, 17.5 and 4.4
percent were in the central, southern regions and Central Highlands
respectively. Cases are scattered.
There is no
specific vaccine against viral encephalitis, except Japanese
encephalitis, said Dr. Tran Dac Phu. Vaccine against Japanese
encephalitis has been included in the National Expanded Immunization
program since 1997 and immunization has been carried out at 580 districts of
60 cities and provinces across the country.
The Department
of Preventive Medicine asked municipal and provincial people's
committee to mobilize the participation of all sectors and take
measures against viral encephalitis and improve treatment efficiency to
minimize mortality and bar cross-infection at health facilities.
Early detection of
infected people is required to isolate the area and handle the outbreaks.
Vaccination should be conducted among children in the age to ensure high rate
of immunization.
People should clean
the houses and farms to prevent mosquitoes and sleep in mosquito-nets.
Source: VNN/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/ND
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Thứ Năm, 10 tháng 7, 2014
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