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Social News 11/3
Legal doubts over plan to seize and sell traffic violation
vehicles
Government legal experts have cast doubt on whether traffic
authorities can sell vehicles confiscated because of a breach in alcohol laws
or misuse of designated roadways.
Tran The Quan, deputy head of the Department of Legal and
Administrative Reform, has problems with a National Traffic Safety Committee
proposal to sell confiscated vehicles of drunken drivers, or motorbikes and
bicycles using expressways that prohibit their access.
Quan said the plan needs more thought, particularly as
violators may be using transport borrowed from another person.
"This proposal is not very fair," Quan said.
"If a crime is committed using a stolen of borrowed vehicle, the vehicle
is returned to the rightful owner. And even in the event of a driver being
drunk, or driving a motorbike illegally on an expressway, no actual crime has
been committed, but rather a traffic violation."
Quan suggested stiffer fines, set at the value of the vehicle,
might be a better option.
The National Traffic Safety Committee has proposed confiscation
of vehicles where the driver fails a blood-alcohol test and exceeds a measure
of 0.08, equivalent to six beers consumed in the space of one hour.
Motorbikes and bicycles using expressways should also be confiscated, rather
than merely impounded.
The proposal would see confiscated vehicles sold at auction
and the proceeds given to the poor.
Nearly 700 students compete in national contest on science and
engineering
The 2015 national science and engineering fair (VISEF) was
launched by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) in Bac Ninh
province on March 3.
This year's competition has attracted the participation of 371
students from 30 provinces and cities in the north (from Thua Thien Hue
northward) who are presenting 205 projects in poster format from March 8 to10
in Bac Ninh.
Meanwhile, 306 students from 31 provinces and cities in the
south (from
The 2015 contest has attracted a total of 385 projects from
677 students, which were selected from more than 5,000 projects in provincial
level competitions, an increase of 86 projects compared to 2014.
The projects focus on fields including animal science, social
science and behaviour, biochemistry, cell and molecular biology, chemistry,
computer science, engineering and biotechnology, and environmental sciences
among others.
Candidates will build reports on their research and present
their projects in poster format to the jury. Shortlisted candidates can
register to compete at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair
(Intel ISEF), the world's largest international pre-college science
competition.
The national contest on science and engineering for high
school students has been held annually by the MOET since the 2011-2012 school
year, aiming to encourage students to study science and technology and apply
their knowledge in solving real life problems.
The cleanup of
At a meeting with the city government last Saturday, the
management board of the HCMC Urban Upgrade Project said 98% of the workload
had been completed and that a ceremony would be organized on April 5 to mark
the completion of the project.
Major components of the project in districts 6, 11, Tan Binh
and Tan Phu have been done, including 2,617 meters of sewers, 12 bridges and
10 km of road. In addition, trees have been planted to create green scenery
along the canal.
Work started four years ago on the VND2 trillion (US$93.7 million)
project to improve the living environment for the residential areas
stretching 7.5 kilometers along the canal. According to environment
experts, together with the
The management board of the HCMC Urban Upgrade Project
forecast land and house prices in the canal basin would increase as the
project would help reduce flooding and pollution there.
The project is part of the Urban Upgrade Project in
After ten years of implementation, the project has benefited
over six million people in the four localities.
HCMC should increase capacity to treat toxic wastes: experts
The volume of toxic waste discharged a day in Ho Chi Minh City
is estimated to reach 300-600 tons this year but the city has been able to
treat about 20 percent of this waste’s volume. Experts said that local
authorities should further invest in treatment facilities to prevent worse
environmental pollution.
According to the city Department of Natural Resources and
Environment, poisonous waste volume will highly increase this year. This
situation had been anticipated for many years ago but the city’s treatment
facilities have not been upgraded appropriately.
Businesses had to pay as high as VND40 million (US$1,874) for
the collection and treatment of a ton of harmful waste sometimes in
2012-2013. The price for an industrial and household waste ton is VND2.5-12
million.
This is because a severe shortage of units who collect and
treat wastes. At that time, the city sped up calling social investment in
this field but the number of investors has been very limited so far.
Recently, HCMC has approved a policy to build two toxic waste
treatment plants but they have not come into operation so far.
Many waste collection and treatment establishments said that
the city has no safe landfill site for toxic waste. A large volume of this
waste type can not be burned, it must be buried. Besides ash from the burned
waste has no way to move out and has still stayed at production units.
If this situation prolongs, the wastes will be dumped into the
environment.
The city has about 30 toxic waste treatment establishments.
Each of them can handle only few tons a day, except a plant under HCMC Urban
Environment Company Limited which can treat 21 tons a day.
The company’s director said that the facility capacity will be
increased to 40 tons a day. But it will be able to treat a part of the total
volume of harmful waste discharged in the city a day.
In addition, if the city does not build a landfill site, it
will be difficult for the company to ensure a safe post-treatment phase, he
added.
Only about 20 percent of toxic wastes in HCMC have been
collected and treated. Environment experts said that limited treatment
capacity and exorbitant fees have forced many businesses to seek other ways
to handle their waste. For instance, they can discharge it into the
environment or mix toxic waste with industrial or household wastes to pay
lower treatment fees.
In fact, a large volume of noxious waste has been dumped along
streets in Districts 7, 8, 12, Binh Chanh and Binh Tan.
Therefore, If the city does not invest appropriately in
treatment facilities, the city’s environment will not be improved as per it
target for 2015, experts warned.
Second Color Me Run set for next month
The Color Me Run race will be organized for the second time in
HCMC, Danang and
Unlike other sporting events, the Color Me Run features a
five-kilometer race in which runners are showered with color powder at
checkpoints along the route.
Participants will be greeted at the finish line with a music
performance by American rapper T-pain, the pop group GRL and Singapore DJs
Atran and Manfred.
With the message “We’ll be united”, the event is expected to
be a weekend festive day for people to gather with friends and families. The
HCMC run is slated for April 11 and the Danang event for June 27 while a
specific date for the
For more information, visit the Facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/colormerun.vn
Registration for the HCMC run is open until March 27 at
www.colormerun.vn with a joining fee of VND550,000 for each individual.
Meanwhile, the participation fee for individuals at the Danang contest is
VND250,000 each from March 2 to April 12, and VND300,000 from April 13 to
June 7. The fee for the
Kids get free surgery for congenital defects
Fifty Vietnamese youth, from two months to 20 years old, will
be offered free screening and congenital cleft lip and palate surgery at the
University Medical Centre in
The seven-day programme will be carried out by the University
Medical Centre of HCM City in co-operation with the US-based non-governmental
organisation Operation Smile.
Coach collides with truck, kills 1
A 28-year-old man was killed and two others were injured early
yesterday after a coach collided with a truck.
The accident took place on a stretch of the
The two injured persons include the truck driver.
The provincial Traffic Safety Committee revealed that the
truck driver did not give way to the coach driver, who was initially held
responsible for the accident.
The accident occurred when the truck entered the national
highway from a local road and crashed into the coach, the committee stated.
The accident brought traffic to a standstill for few hours.
The police are investigating the case.
Lao Cai reports more foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks
The foot-and-mouth disease resurfaced in the northern
mountainous
The latest outbreaks were reported in Bat Xat district's Trinh
Tuong commune, where more than 65 infected pigs and cattle weighing more than
three tonnes were culled.
The initial cause of the outbreak of the disease was
established to be the earlier epidemic.
The provincial authority has sent vaccines and chemicals to
sterilise the infected breeding areas.
Along with the vaccination of all cattle in the area, the
local units have also stopped the transportation and slaughtering of cattle
with high-risk infectious diseases in the neighbouring communes.
The provincial veterinary department will co-ordinate with the
People's Committees of districts and cities across the province to strengthen
the inspection and monitoring of the disease to control its spread.
They will also reinforce units to check transportation,
slaughtering and smuggling of products to ensure safe food for customers.
More illegal brokers arrested at Huong Pagoda Festival
Thirteen more illegal brokers, who were the main cause for the
public chaos at the Huong Pagoda Festival in Ha Noi's Ung Hoa District, have
been held, the police said.
With their detention, the number of brokers held in the case
has gone up to 33.
Lieutenant Colonel Le Kim Dong, head of the Ha Noi Police
Department's crime prevention unit, said that the illegal brokers were caught
while trying to follow cars carrying tourists to the pagoda, to convince them
to buy entrance tickets or tickets for boating and cable cars.
Twelve motorbikes and mobile phones belonging to the brokers
were seized.
Dong added that the brokers usually worked in groups and
overcharged visitors for services, causing chaos and disorder, ever since the
festival began on the sixth day of the first lunar month (February 24).
The brokers will have to pay fines between VND100,000 and
VND300,000 (US$4.7-14.1), and their vehicles will be seized for two months.
About 16,000 visitors have attended the Huong Pagoda Festival,
one of the largest of its kind in
This year's festival will run till April.
The National Power Transformer Corporation will invest VND 343
billion (US$16 million) on a 220kV-transformer station in Ngu Hanh Son
District and a 220kV power line from Da Nang to Ngu Hanh Son.
The station and line will be upgraded from the current 110kV
station and line in District 3.
So far, site clearance and financial compensation for locals
have been completed, and a contractor has been shosen. The station is
expected to completed and put into operation in the second quarter this year.
The project will help
Experts say more doctors need in-service training
In-service training is critical for enhancing doctors'
capacity in emergency medicine, leading experts in healthcare stressed at a
conference held yesterday in the northern
The conference was organized by the Vietnamese Society of
Emergency Medicine (VSEM) and the
The conference offered them a chance to exchange knowledge and
get updated on advanced technologies in emergency medicine, said Nguyen Van
Chi, deputy head of Bach Mai Hospital's A9 Emergency Department, adding that
the conference also helped boost cooperation with international
organisations.
According to Do Ngoc Son from the A9 Emergency Department,
during the two-day conference, participants will join a research forum to
exchange knowledge and experience, conduct training courses in stroke care,
and especially in pre-hospital injury care, which is important, given the
current seriousness of traffic accidents and strokes in the country.
Enhancing the capacity of doctors and nurses is of great
importance for improving the quality of healthcare services, experts stated.
At the conference, participants also got a chance to become
familiar with advanced medical equipment used in emergency medicine from big
names in the world, including GE Healthcare, Pfizer, Ferring and Boehringer
Ingelheim.
Nguyen Dat Anh, president of VSEM, said technology is
complicated and changes every day, adding that it is necessary for clinicians
to remain updated about the latest technologies as technology will help
reduce the work load of doctors and enhance healthcare services' efficiency.
All TB patients to get standard treatment by 2015
The national tuberculosis prevention and treatment programme
aims to provide 100 percent of TB patients with access to standard treatment
methods this year.
The goal was highlighted at a March 9 conference reviewing the
implementation of the programme over the past year.
The programme will also strive to reduce the incidence rate to
187 per 100,000 people and the fatality rate from TB to below 18 per 100,000.
In 2014, the national campaign was carried out nationwide;
through the programme over 102,000 patients were discovered with a TB
incidence rate of 111 per 100,000 people. The recovery rate among new TB
patients was 89.9 percent.
Speaking at the event, Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thi Xuyen
said according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), tuberculosis remains
the second leading cause of death among infectious diseases.
Xuyen highlighted that
The Deputy Minister requested local authorities make
tuberculosis prevention and treatment work a part of their socio-economic
development target in 2015.
Specially, the national tuberculosis prevention and treatment
campaign will be fortified and linked to anti-HIV programmes while expanding
cooperation with public and private medical units, she added.
Event participants discussed models and achievements in the
prevention and treatment of tuberculosis, such as developing specific
technical skills, encouraging public participation, and improving research
competency.
Ninh Binh leads in health insurance coverage for elderly
The
According to figures reported at the event, as many as 630,000
locals, including all households on the verge of poverty, have been covered
by social and health insurance thus far.
The province’s social insurance system spends around 185
billion VND (nearly 8.7 million USD) per year on social insurance benefits.
Speaking at the event, Deputy Minister of Finance and General
Director of Vietnam Social Insurance Nguyen Thi Minh asked the provincial
Social Insurance Department to work towards bringing additional benefits to
labourers and locals in general, contributing to ensuring social security and
realising the province’s target of over 85 percent of its workforce covered
by social insurance by 2020.
Le Hung Son, the department’s Director, said the sector
promotes the application of information technology in managing the collection
and payment of insurance premiums while simplifying related procedures and
focusing on improving the professional skills of personnel in the field.
It also abides by the State’s policies of social insurance in
order to create equal rights for labourers in all economic areas, he added.
On the occasion, two local organisations were presented with
the third-class Labour Order and the Prime Minister’s certificate of merit,
and 18 individuals received the insignia “For the Cause of Social Insurance”
by the Government in recognition of their important contributions to the
locality’s social and health insurance coverage effort.
Free joint replacement operations offered to 54 patients
The Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (Central
Military Hospital 108) and Operation Walk, a US-based charity organization,
conducted operations to replace knee and groin joints for 54 patients, replacing
70 joints with artificial ones.
The patients, including policy beneficiaries and needy people,
received free operations, worth VND70 million each.
This is the 4th time Operation Walk cooperated with the
Central Military Hospital 108 in joint replacement. The organization offers
artificial joints and exercises to recover the functions for the joints after
operations, reducing the hospital stay for patients.
GE Healthcare goes beyond traditional ventilation solutions
In an effort to help improve patient safety in Intensive Care
Medicine, GE Healthcare, the healthcare business of the General Electric
Company on March 9 introduced its new CARESCAPE R860 - an Intuitive Critical
Care ventilator which uses advanced lung protection tools and an innovative user
interface.
The CARESCAPE R860 simplifies the use of advanced tools to
tailor treatment for each patient by measuring patients’ lung volume and
potential lung recruitability, which is the ability of the lung alveoli to
open, and titrating the appropriate positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP)
to allow better oxygenation.
“The lung is a delicate and highly sensitive structure,”
explained Paul Hunsicker, clinical manager of Respiratory Care for GE
Healthcare’s Life Care Solutions business.
“Patients affected by lung disease are highly susceptible to
ventilation-associated lung injury, and mechanical ventilation can be
detrimental if too much volume or pressure is delivered.
“This new ventilator helps to address these concerns,” said
Hunsicker.
The CARESCAPE R860 has introduced an intuitive user interface
into the world of mechanical ventilation, helping decrease the intimidation
associated with caring for difficult patients.
The system provides a user experience similar to other common
devices we interact with on a daily basis, such as cell phones and tablets,
including one touch navigation and minimal menus, allowing clinicians to
focus on the care delivered to the patient, rather than how to interact with
the ventilator.
Through the introduction of advanced monitoring parameters,
the CARESCAPE R860 is able to provide a Lung Protection strategy which can
better reflect the impact of ventilation, helping clinicians make better decisions
and helping to reduce the risk of harm to the patient that can result from
mechanical ventilation.
In addition, the newest feature of the CARESCAPE R860 is the
ability to monitor metabolic rates of patients.
The ventilator includes nutrition information right on the
touch screen which can tell clinicians if the patient is suffering from
malnutrition - another complication that patients with respiratory failure
are at risk of in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
In fact, malnutrition is common in acutely ill patients,
occurring in 30-50 per cent of hospitalised patients, with a higher
prevalence among critically ill patients4.
“A patient’s duration of stay in the ICU can be directly
impacted by improper ventilation and malnutrition, particularly for surgical
patients where malnutrition can affect a patient's ability to heal after
surgery and wean from the ventilator,”
“We’ve integrated indirect calorimetry or Metabolics into the
CARESCAPE R860 ventilator so that a patient's nutritional needs can now be measured
directly through the ventilator,” said Hunsicker.
This new feature helps clinicians ensure their patients
caloric needs are met, without the need to bring additional equipment into an
already crowded patient room.
“Data shows that more than half of all ICU patients worldwide
are significantly underfed based on the energy they are prescribed to receive
for the first two weeks of ICU care,” Hunsicker added.
In Vietnam in particular, a recent cross sectional study in a
major urban tertiary care hospital in Vietnam showed a total of 19 per cent
of hospitalised pediatric patients aged six-months to 18-years, and 33.3% of
hospitalised adults 19-years and above were considered to have malnutrition.
Four local firms are taking steps to produce at least five
vaccines, including the combined 5-in-1 and 6-in-1 shots that are in great
demand in
This project is one of the national product programs run by
the Ministry of Science and Technology, Do Tuan Dat, director of the Vaccine
and Biological Production Company No. 1, said in a recent interview with Tuoi
Tre (Youth) newspaper.
Under this project, at least five vaccines will be produced,
including a Vi-rEPA typhoid vaccine, a Japanese encephalitis virus vaccine
made in Vero cells, a hepatitis A vaccine made in diploid cells, a 5-in-1
vaccine (against five diseases: polio, whooping cough, diphtheria, tetanus,
and Haemophilus influenzae b (Hib)), and a 6-in-1 vaccine (for the preceding
five diseases plus hepatitis B), Dat said.
Of these vaccines, the 5-in-1 and 6-in-1 are really desired by
families having babies, Dat said.
It is expected that the 5-in-1 and 6-in-1 vaccines will be
tested in 2018, Dat said.
Currently, the country is facing a shortage of the two
combined vaccines, said Tran Dac Phu, head of the health ministry’s
Preventive Health Department.
Vaccine makers have committed themselves to providing
Dat emphasized that every vaccine marker is required to ensure
their products’ quality and any vaccine must undergo tests to prove their
safety and effectiveness.
Of these 11, the one against measles has been placed by the
World Health Organization (WHO) among the vaccines meeting global standards,
he said.
Over the past ten years,
Upon such recognition,
Vietnamese female scientists succeed in low-cost
groundbreaking eye research
Fruitful low-cost, pioneering research conducted by a group of
female scientists in
Female scientists at
The approach, which is the first to have been attempted in the
country, was conducted at a cost of VND890 million (US$41,476), much cheaper
than normal.
The team’s efforts have paid off as their research proves
fruitful and earned them a 2014 Kovalevskaia award, which was given away on
Saturday.
The awards are given annually to outstanding female scientists
for their innovative research or massive contributions to the local science
arena.
According to Associate Professor Hoang Minh Chau, of the
National Institute of Ophthalmology’s Cornea Faculty, the team was driven by
their concern that a growing number of patients have incurred extensive
damage to their eyeball surface in both their eyes and face an imminent risk
of going blind.
The approaches adopted in the past are flawed and required
that patients be on medication to avoid transplant rejection risks for the
rest of their life.
Based on research in other countries, the team embarked on
their groundbreaking work and piloted their stem cell culture in 2003.
Their hurdles included limited state funding and
unavailability of certain chemicals and materials in
Undaunted, the team worked out alternative chemicals and
materials.
Four years later, their culture of rabbits’ stem cells of the
peripheral areas of corneas was a big success, with the cells and epithelium
working well on the animals that sustained eye injuries.
The women made a daring move when they began their culture and
transplant on humans in 2008.
The transplant’s result on the first patient treated with the
approach seven years ago has remained good so far.
Associate Professor Nguyen Thi Binh, of
The team has also completed paperwork to propose that the
Ministry of Health adopt the pioneering treatment in many eye hospitals and
clinics.
The scientists hope that they will soon be able to begin
similar research which meets global standards.
Education authority strictly asks students to obey traffic law
The Ministry of Education and Training has just sent a
document to its sub-departments and schools asking to increase information of
traffic regulation to students.
Students must strictly obey railway traffic regulation,
especially they must be clearly aware of forbidden activities when driving in
streets.
Education sector and schools must provide their students with
information of river traffic including wearing life-jacket on boats and
carrying out strictly guidelines.
Schools must keep close watch to extra-activities out of
schools in a bid to ensure safety for students.
Moreover, the departments of education must instruct schools
to work with parents that they should not let their children driving in
street without license.
Besides, parents must promise not let their children to drive
without helmet, even when they drive electricity bicycles or motorbikes.
Authority will impose penalties on violating students to deter
them from breaching of the law.
Source : VEF/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/Dantri/VIR
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Thứ Tư, 11 tháng 3, 2015
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