Soy milk from home producers poses risk

Customers at a street stall drink no brand soy milk. It is a popular staple which may contain some nasty surprises. The soy milk you buy for breakfast from your favorite pushcart may not be the healthy start to the day you expect.

It’s cheap, protein rich, vitamin packed and is a popular beverage of Vietnamese people. Many elderly, office workers and children stop by pushcarts or street stalls to have a glass of soy milk every morning. Unbranded soy milk, however, hasn’t been tested in accordance with food hygiene and safety practices and may pose a health risk including food poisoning, according to local health experts. Dao Thi Yen Phi, lecturer of Ho Chi Minh City-based Pham Ngoc Thach Medical University, said as it is processed in water, soy milk is vulnerable to such bacterium as E.coli, which causes diarrhea, and salmonella. No one controls the quality of the soy milk sold in the street, she said. “Additionally, it is not guaranteed that milk containers are hygienic.” Huynh Le Thai Hoa, head of Food Safety and Hygiene Management Office under HCMC Health Department, said soy milk is a kind of cooked food which demands hygienic practices from production to transportation and sale. Production facilities, unhygienic procedures and chemical additives are the main problems with no brand soy milk, according to a local newspaper. A lot of the soymilk sold on the streets in HCMC is produced in cramped home run factories, a local newspaper said. For example, a small private soy milk factory in Ward 16 of Go Vap District in HCMC is in a 30-squaremeter room. It is messy with tanks of milk, kilns and grinders. It also includes a restroom, the Vietnamese newspaper said. Ngoc, a worker from the factory, said the milk is made from a very weak mix of soy beans and water, so fatty powder and soy milk flavor bought from a local market is mixed in to make it taste good. The milk costs less to make than proper soy milk so the boss can sell it for about VND2,000 (US$0.12) per liter to wholesalers, Ngoc added. Soy milk makers often buy soy beans in bulk, which are stored in damp conditions so they are moldy when the milk is made. Most home soy milk producers are unaware that moldy beans pose a threat of food poisoning, a nutritional expert said. To get rid of the moldy smell, flavors and additives are commonly added which if overused can cause cancer or other diseases, the expert said. A woman who has made soy milk for wholesalers for more than five years said she has never taken any courses in food safety and hygiene. “I make soy milk like other makers. Frankly speaking, I am not aware how dangerous it is to use moldy beans since they are boiled,” she said. Last year around 20 students of the southern province of Soc Trang school were hospitalized after drinking soy milk provided by a private manufacturer. Apart from a few random inspections, health officials and related agencies’ only approach to the problem is media warnings against unbranded soy milk. Reported by Xuan Mai

Factory canteen suspended following mass food poisoning

The health watchdog in the southern Tay Ninh Province has halted the operation of a canteen at a local factory after more than a thousand laborers contracted food poisoning earlier this week.

As of Wednesday afternoon, nearly 1,600 employees of Taiwanese-owned VMC Hoang Gia factory were hospitalized with symptoms of food poisoning since the outbreak occurred on Monday. Some workers were even hospitalized for a second time. An inspection conducted by local authorities showed the kitchen of the canteen lacked certification that approved food safety conditions. The canteen, run by a woman named Do Thi Hai, provides around 9,000 meal servings to workers daily. According to inspectors, the kitchen lacked appropriate cupboards to store food containers, chopsticks and spoons. The kitchen uses water drawn from wells whose water quality was not checked every six months as regulated. Drinking water for workers was not boiled, said inspectors. All 50 kitchen staff did not receive periodic health checks, nor were they trained on food safety rules. Nguyen Thanh Phong, head of the provincial Health Department, said his department has taken samples of food, water and medical waste for testing at Ho Chi Minh City-based Institute of Hygiene and Public Health. Phong said the department will bolster inspections of canteens, especially those in industrial parks, factories and schools. Violators would be strictly penalized, he said. Nguyen Van Nhiem, deputy head of the provincial Labor Union, urged managers of companies and factories to pa better attention to providing far workers’ meals. Companies normally pay about VND3,500 (US$0.20) a meal portion for their laborers, which partly prompts owners of canteens to sell low-quality food products. Nguyen Thi Gai, a worker affected by food poisoning at VMC, said: “Looking at the serving, we feel quite bored but have to try and eat it to have enough strength for work.” This month, at least two food poisoning cases have hit workers in Tay Ninh. Last week, food poisoning affected nearly 150 employees in Langham Garment Company but no fatalities were reported. In related news, on Tuesday, over 40 laborers of the Dunlopillo Vietnam Limited Company in the southern Binh Duong Province were hospitalized after having lunch. Managers at the local Thuan An Hospital said the workers vomited and experienced dizziness, among a host of other symptoms. Reported by Tran Phan

20,000 dead due to bad water, sanitation: WHO report

Unclean water and bad sanitation claims more than 20,000 lives per year in Vietnam, World Health Organization (WHO) office in Hanoi said Thursday.

WHO said severe diarrhea accounts for 50 percent of the cases. Less than 1 percent of all deaths in developed countries come from unclean water while the ratio in developing nations is ten-fold, WHO said. The lack of clean water and unsatisfactory sanitation programs remain the most urgent issues in developing countries, said the report. Reported by Thanh Tung

Tumor removed from central Vietnam woman

The 16-kilogram tumor removed from the body of Le Thi Hoa. Surgeons have removed a 16-kilogram tumor from the belly of a 53-year-old woman, a Da Nang Hospital doctor said Friday.

Le Thi Hoa is recovering well after a nearly three-hour operation, said Vo Van Tuong, one of the doctors who performed the surgery. Hoa, who was admitted to the hospital on Thursday, suffered from respiratory failure. The doctors performed the emergency operation the same day. Tuong said as there was a membrane between the tumor and the woman’s other organs, the removal did not affect the rest of her internal workings. Hoa felt her belly start becoming bigger six months ago but she thought she was just gaining weight. Recently, when her stomach became so big, she visited some hospitals but was told an operation would be too risky. The state of her health became dangerous on Thursday and her family took her to the hospital for emergency care. Tuong said if Hoa had not undergone the operation this week, her condition would have become critical. The tumor is the biggest ever removed by Da Nang Hospital doctors. Reported by Dieu Hien

Fragile body

Dang Phuong Thuy in front of her house in northern Ha Tay Province A young woman in northern Vietnam has had her legs broken more than 100 times, leaving her limbs twisted and muscles atrophied investigate the case.

Dang Phuong Thuy, 24, of Thuong Tin District of northern Ha Tay Province has a rare bone disease known as Osteogenesis imperfecta. As a child Thuy overcame the pain of her weak bones to go to school in a wheelchair because she wanted to do something with her life. Her mother said as a new born infant she cried without stopping when someone touched her. Then the family took Thuy to the hospital, and the doctors told them her thigh and shin bones were broken in three places each. Hospitals have been a part of Thuy’s life ever since, because it is so easy for her to fracture the bones in her legs. Every year she goes to hospital about six times to mend the breaks. Her parents have done everything they can get money to treat Thuy’s disease, from manual labor with low pay to borrowing money to take her to hospitals in Hanoi. The family is very poor. Many times her mother only had a few thousand dong when Thuy had to be hospitalized in a Hanoi health clinic. Non-stop efforts Thuy graduated from high school after twelve years of school with the support from her parents. After Thuy’s high school graduation, her parents sent her to Hanoi to pursue higher education in a junior college, majoring in informatics. After the two-year course, as her parents could not afford the study, Thuy had to return home, putting her desire for higher education at a university on hold. Her parents then bought a secondhand photocopier and computer for Thuy to run a small copy service and work as a typist. As her health is not good, Thuy feels tired after working for a short time. Every month her family spends millions of dong (hundreds of dollars) on medicine for Thuy. Her father said, “We only hope for some support to pay part of her hospital fees so our daughter can have a longer life.” Everyday Thuy works in her small photocopying shop. Her email nickname cobengoc_uocmo@yahoo.com means “the desires of a foolish girl.” When asked why she chose such a nickname, Thuy said, “For the disabled like me, many dreams are impossible, though they are simple for normal people. When I have such dreams, somehow I feel foolish.” RARE BONE DISEASE ■ Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), commonly known as brittle bone disease, is a genetic bone disorder in which the bones are very brittle and easy to break. OI has eight different types. ■ There is no cure for OI yet. Treatment like physiotherapy, physical aids and surgery aim to increase overall bone strength to prevent fractures and maintain mobility. ■ In Vietnam, no statistics are available on how many people have OI. Reported by Phong Lan

Bringing it on home

Victor Vu (1st, L) directs his latest feature Chuyen tinh xa xu( Untitled Love Story) in Ho Chi Minh City After honing his craft in the US, a Vietnamese-American filmmaker is finally realizing his dream of making a film in his motherland.

Vietnamese American director Victor Vu has always yearned for the chance to make a film in Vietnam and capture a bit of the place he still considers home. Although a large number of Vietnamese and Asians in the US appreciate his films, he has always felt the strong urge to return to Vietnam and make a picture here. “I live and work in the US, but deep inside, I’m always a Vietnamese,” he says. He says he regrets that his film Oan hon (Spirits) – one of his more critically successful features – is set in rural Vietnam but was shot entirely in southern California. Vu says he initially intended to make the film in Vietnam, but ran into logistical problems and had to shoot in the US But the 33-year-old director has finally begun to turn his dream into a reality. He is currently working on Chuyen tinh xa xu (Untitled Love Story), which has scenes shot both in Vietnam and the US “It feels so different working back home,” he said. The film centers on Khang, a rich but good-for-nothing young man, and his childhood friend, Hieu, an aspiring poor student. Both friends end up studying in the US, where Khang falls for a divorced police woman. But their love is forbidden by their families. Meanwhile Hieu is torn between a beautiful girl who has won Vietnamese American beauty pageants and a girl in Vietnam to whom he is engaged. The film, a collaboration between the US’s InFocus Media group and Vietnam’s Wonderboy Entertainment, is scheduled to hit Vietnamese and American theaters over the 2009 Lunar New Year Holiday. “The Industry” Vu is optimistic about the film industry in Vietnam. “It doesn’t matter to me where I pursue my career, Vietnam or the US” he says. “Vietnam’s film industry hasn’t made enormous strides, but it has achieved steady progress over recent years.” “This is an encouraging sign, we can’t expect it to improve overnight,” he says. Vu also says he was happy with the local actors he used in Untitled Love Story. “Vietnamese actors and actresses act naturally and play their roles well.” But he also pointed out what he considered the actors’ weaknesses – they pay more attention to their appearance than to their acting. Aspiring director Victor Vu, whose real name is Vu Quoc Viet, was born in 1975 in North Hollywood, California. He graduated from the School of Cinema and Television at Loyola Marymount University in 1998. His thesis film, Firecracker, pocketed the Student Showcase Award at the Hamptons International Film Festival and the Best Short Film Award at the Newport Beach International Film Festival. He spent the next six years working in visual effects for Sony Pictures Imageworks and Eastman Kodak’s Cinesite Digital Studios on such films as Starship Troopers, Contact and X-Men 2, all the while nurturing his dream to become a filmmaker. “It was a really tough time, but once one is engaged in filmmaking, he or she must be ready to face challenges.” In 2002, he co-founded Strange Logic Entertainment and began producing his own films. Vu’s feature film debut, Buoi sang dau nam (First Morning) won the Best Feature Film Award at the San Diego Asian Film Festival in 2004. The film also garnered him the Emerging Director honor at the 2003 Vietnamese International Film Festival. The film is about a young man who returns home on the threshold of the Lunar New Year and finds himself a stranger within his own family. The cold silence surrounding the disappearance of his younger sister pushes him into a quest for answers that leads him through the shadowy events of his family’s history. From their perilous migration from Vietnam, to their separation and struggle with marital relationships, the family continues to endure the tragedy and disappointment of false expectations. Vu’s second feature, the ghost-story Oan hon (Spirits), played at several major film festivals including the Bangkok International Film Festival and the Singapore International Film Festival. It was also an official choice at the Hawaii International Film Festival and the Fantasia Film Fest in Montreal, Canada. The film blends Vietnamese folklore with modern pathos to explore obsession, love and redemption. “Vietnamese people have a rich spiritual life which, in many ways, is embedded into our culture,” Vu says. “I grew up listening to these ghost stories and they intrigued me because they are not only meant to scare listeners.” Vu says Vietnamese ghost stories are emotionally driven, offering a deep spiritual and philosophical look at human existence. Vu also plans to make another film with Wonderboy Entertainment in the near future. Reported by Kim

Farewell, Uncle Sau Dan

The death of former Prime Minister Vo Van kiet has surprised and distressed the Vietnamese people. But we all know the rule of life’s “four sufferings” – birth, aging, illnesses, and death.

Former PM Vo Van Kiet, who used the nom-de-guerre Sau Dan during the war, passed away following other comrades of his generation, including former Communist Party chief Nguyen Van Linh, former minister of Public Security Mai Chi Tho, and scholar Tran Bach Dang. I could not believe my ears when I heard of his death. I could not believe my eyes when I saw Kiet laying motionless on a stretcher when he was repatriated from Singapore to Vietnam on Wednesday. The rain was pouring heavily that day. Many at the airport burst into tears. Bay Hue, the widow of former Communist Party chief Nguyen Van Linh, said in tears: “Mr. Sau Dan committed his whole life to the country, even when he was 86.” Kiet usually told us, the younger generation: “I will never join elderly associations or groups for the retired.” We all knew that Kiet was strong enough to contribute to the country no matter how old he was. Some times we suggested that he rest and bow out for the younger generation, especially considering the great contributions Kiet and his generation had made to the country. But he did not agree. On Wednesday, many high-ranking officials arrived at the airport to receive Kiet. Among them were Truong Tan Sang, permanent member of the Communist Party Secretariat, Politburo member and chief of the Ho Chi Minh City Communist Party Unit, Le Thanh Hai, Deputy PM Nguyen Thien Nhan, HCMC mayor Le Hoang Quan, and HCMC People’s Council Chairwoman Pham Phuong Thao. Kiet’s personal cooks also turned out to receive his body. The younger generation has learned a lot from Kiet. We’ll always take what he said to heart: “Whatever you do, the common benefit of the country and its people must be made a leading priority. Do not be distracted by the pursuit of personal wealth. That’s the sine qua none for every public officer.” By Nguyen Cong Khe

Thanh Nien honored at media awards

A ceremony to honor Vietnam’s best news reports was held Sunday in Hanoi in the presence of President Nguyen Minh Triet and other Party and government officials.

The jury of the Vietnam Journalist Association granted four Prize As (first prize awards), 11 Prize Bs and 24 Prize Cs. Journalist Hoang Hai Van of Thanh Nien won a Prize B for his in-depth coverage of the quality of imported fuel in Vietnam. The report, “Euro II and Fuel Quality: the Efforts to Damage the Country,” criticized the government’s policy of applying Euro II emission standards on all new vehicles and also examined how fuel importers who sell low-quality fuels were contributing to pollution. Triet praised the strong growth of the local press and called on the media to strive to improve themselves to “become an active force in building the country.” Party Central Committee Secretary and head of the Party’s Central Committee for Ideology and Education To Huy Rua, Deputy Prime Minister cum Education Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan and Fatherland Front Chairman Huynh Dam also attended at the ceremony. Reported by Xuan Toan

Fragile body

Dang Phuong Thuy in front of her house in northern Ha Tay Province A young woman in northern Vietnam has had her legs broken more than 100 times, leaving her limbs twisted and muscles atrophied investigate the case.

Dang Phuong Thuy, 24, of Thuong Tin District of northern Ha Tay Province has a rare bone disease known as Osteogenesis imperfecta. As a child Thuy overcame the pain of her weak bones to go to school in a wheelchair because she wanted to do something with her life. Her mother said as a new born infant she cried without stopping when someone touched her. Then the family took Thuy to the hospital, and the doctors told them her thigh and shin bones were broken in three places each. Hospitals have been a part of Thuy’s life ever since, because it is so easy for her to fracture the bones in her legs. Every year she goes to hospital about six times to mend the breaks. Her parents have done everything they can get money to treat Thuy’s disease, from manual labor with low pay to borrowing money to take her to hospitals in Hanoi. The family is very poor. Many times her mother only had a few thousand dong when Thuy had to be hospitalized in a Hanoi health clinic. Non-stop efforts Thuy graduated from high school after twelve years of school with the support from her parents. After Thuy’s high school graduation, her parents sent her to Hanoi to pursue higher education in a junior college, majoring in informatics. After the two-year course, as her parents could not afford the study, Thuy had to return home, putting her desire for higher education at a university on hold. Her parents then bought a secondhand photocopier and computer for Thuy to run a small copy service and work as a typist. As her health is not good, Thuy feels tired after working for a short time. Every month her family spends millions of dong (hundreds of dollars) on medicine for Thuy. Her father said, “We only hope for some support to pay part of her hospital fees so our daughter can have a longer life.” Everyday Thuy works in her small photocopying shop. Her email nickname cobengoc_uocmo@yahoo.com means “the desires of a foolish girl.” When asked why she chose such a nickname, Thuy said, “For the disabled like me, many dreams are impossible, though they are simple for normal people. When I have such dreams, somehow I feel foolish.” RARE BONE DISEASE ■ Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), commonly known as brittle bone disease, is a genetic bone disorder in which the bones are very brittle and easy to break. OI has eight different types. ■ There is no cure for OI yet. Treatment like physiotherapy, physical aids and surgery aim to increase overall bone strength to prevent fractures and maintain mobility. ■ In Vietnam, no statistics are available on how many people have OI. Reported by Phong Lan

Nearly 1,000 hospitalized with food poisoning

Hundreds of workers from a shoe company in the southern province of Tay Ninh were hospitalized with food poisoning Monday.

After dinner at the company, nearly 1,000 out of the 5,000 employees at Hoang Gia VMC Limited Company in Chau Thanh District came down with stomachaches and began vomiting. Some had low blood pressure. The province’s Department of Health and other agencies are investigating the cause of the food poisoning. Reported by Y Thanh – Y Khanh

Rotavirus main cause of diarrhea in minors: conference

Rotavirus is the main cause of severe diarrhea in children under five years old, agreed doctors and professors at the 13th International Conference on Contagious Diseases in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

Some 25-55 percent of the world’s children under five years old have contracted diarrhea, gastritis or enteritis from Rotavirus, said participants at the event. Of the 661,000 children who die from gastritis and enteritis due to rotavirus annually, 90 percent of them are from Asia and Africa. Diarrhea from rotavirus annually claims the lives of about 171,000 children under two years old in Asia alone, said experts. More than 96 percent of 10,708 children aged from six months to two years old vaccinated against rotavirus have effectively fended off diarrhea, gastritis and enteritis from rotavirus, said researchers at the two-day event, which ended Sunday. Reported by Thanh Tung

Rotavirus main cause of diarrhea in minors: conference

Rotavirus is the main cause of severe diarrhea in children under five years old, agreed doctors and professors at the 13th International Conference on Contagious Diseases in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

Some 25-55 percent of the world’s children under five years old have contracted diarrhea, gastritis or enteritis from Rotavirus, said participants at the event. Of the 661,000 children who die from gastritis and enteritis due to rotavirus annually, 90 percent of them are from Asia and Africa. Diarrhea from rotavirus annually claims the lives of about 171,000 children under two years old in Asia alone, said experts. More than 96 percent of 10,708 children aged from six months to two years old vaccinated against rotavirus have effectively fended off diarrhea, gastritis and enteritis from rotavirus, said researchers at the two-day event, which ended Sunday. Reported by Thanh Tung

Phu Quoc pearls may not be what they seem

A foreigner buys pearl jewelry in Phu Quoc. Many customers cannot tell high-quality from low quality pearls. With a reputation for having some of the world’s finest pearls, Phu Quoc island has been flooded with fakes.

At the Dinh Cau night market, where tourists often meander after a day at the beach, pearls are sold at same booths as souvenirs and toys for only a few hundred-thousand dong. Dozens of stalls at the Ham Ninh Market sell pearl earrings for VND10,000 (US$0.6) apiece alongside snacks and drinks. One pearl necklace costs VND300,000 ($18) while another that looks nearly identical costs VND3 million ($180). Market vendor Hong Dao said the latter was made of real Phu Quoc pearls, worth much more than the Chinese pearls used to make the cheaper necklace. Khong Thi Thanh Truc, a partner in a Japanese-Vietnamese pearl company, said Phu Quoc pearls are 10 times more expensive than Chinese pearls. Vo Van Doi, a pearl trader in An Thoi Town, said he had just sold a 12-millimeter pearl to a foreigner for VND15 million ($903). Doi said it was not easy to find genuine Phu Quoc pearls because fakes have flooded the market. He explained that fake pearls were easy to make but could be discovered by rubbing two pearls together. Fake pearls would loose their enamel this way, he said. Doi also said that putting a flame to pearls was an easy way to tell a fake as imitation pearls would shrink or be deformed by high heat. But few shop owners would allow their pearls to be tested that way, he said. A veteran trader on the island, Doi said the local pearl market is more complicated than ever as shops don’t provide credible evidence of the origins of their pearls. And the fake pearls are everywhere, he said. Even fishmongers and motorbike drivers often approach Doi with cheap fake pearls, asking him to sell them to tourists for a commission. As an established trader, Doi said he always refuses such offers. And it is not only fake pearls or Chinese imports that are hindering the island’s reputation, but even some Phu Quoc pearl companies now sell lower-quality freshwater pearls as opposed to those taken from seawater oysters. Phu Quoc is located some 115 km off the coast of Rach Gia, capital of the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang. Reported by Tien Trinh

No higher death risk in long-term coffee drinking

A waiter prepares cappuccino at a coffee shop in Istanbul October 19, 2007 Long-term coffee drinking does not appear to increase a person's risk of early death and may cut a person's chances of dying from heart disease, according to a study published on Monday.

Previous studies have given a mixed picture of health effects from coffee, finding a variety of benefits and some drawbacks from the popular drink. The new study looked at people who drank caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee. Researchers led by Esther Lopez-Garcia of Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain followed 84,214 U.S. women from 1980 to 2004 and 41,736 U.S. men from 1986 to 2004. They found that regular coffee drinking -- up to six cups a day -- was not associated with increased deaths among the study's middle-aged participants. In fact, the coffee drinkers, particularly the women, experienced a small decline in death rates from heart disease. The study found no association between coffee consumption and cancer deaths. "Our study indicates that coffee consumption does not have a detrimental effect," Lopez-Garcia, whose research appears in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, said in a telephone interview. "It seems like long-term coffee consumption may have some beneficial effects." There has been a debate among scientists about the health effects of drinking coffee, which typically contains the stimulant caffeine and a number of other important compounds. The people who took part in the research completed questionnaires on how frequently they drank coffee, other diet habits, smoking and medical conditions. The researchers then studied the mortality risk over the period of the study among people with different coffee-drinking habits. The study found that women who reported drinking two to three cups of caffeinated coffee per day had a 25 percent lower risk of death from heart disease than women who did not drink coffee. The researchers saw a smaller decreased risk for men but it was not statistically significant. Drinking decaffeinated coffee was associated with a small reduction in overall mortality risk, the researchers said. The people in the study had no history of cardiovascular disease or cancer when they entered it. The women were nurses and the men doctors, dentists and other health professionals. Some studies have indicated coffee is a great source of antioxidants, substances that may protect against the effects of molecules called free radicals that can damage cells and may play a role in heart disease, cancer and other ailments. Recent studies have offered a mixed picture on the health effects of coffee. A study that came out in January found that pregnant women who drink two or more cups of coffee a day had twice the risk of miscarriage as those who avoid caffeine. Another study appearing in January found that drinking caffeinated coffee lowered a woman's risk of ovarian cancer. Source: Reuters

Standardizing pharmacies proves slow-going: seminar

Local authorities will soon tighten regulations to ban drugstores from selling medicine to patients lacking a doctor’s prescription, in an effort to enforce compliance with the Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) by 2011.

“We will issue a list of medicine in July to categorize the ones permitted to be sold without prescription,” said the head of the Department of Pharmaceutical Products Control, Truong Quoc Cuong, at a seminar held in Hanoi on Tuesday. “By 2011, pharmacies that do not meet GPP standards can only sell medicine that do not require prescription.” GPP comprises baseline standards issued by the International Pharmaceutical Federation (IPF) in 1993. It was revised in 1997 and has been endorsed by the World Health Organization. “Patients have a habit of going to pharmacies to procure [all types of] medicine rather than going to see a doctor. Pharmacies, for their own benefit, are always ready to serve such customers,” Cuong said. “Almost all pharmacies violate regulations and sell medicine to patients without a proper prescription and most doctors sell drugs in their private offices,” Deputy Minister of Health Cao Minh Quang said. Stalled process Statistics show only 50 out of the total 1989 pharmacies in Hanoi have met GPP standards, while there are only 27 pharmacies in Ho Chi Minh City that pass the requirements. “At this rate of progress, we cannot approve all pharmacies by 2011 as previously planned,” Deputy Director of Hanoi’s Department of Health Nguyen Van Yen said. The Ministry of Health has carried out a project to issue GPP licenses to pharmacies in four cities – Hanoi, HCMC, Da Nang and Can Tho – since July 2007. Statistics show only 2.5 percent of the total 39,016 pharmacies in the country pass GPP standards. Experts at the seminar blamed the foot-dragging to hurdles facing pharmacies when transitioning to meet GPP standards. Requirements of higher initial investment and the full-time presence of a pharmacist, among other factors, pose great difficulty for the majority of domestic pharmacies to comply to without losing profit. Reported by Lien Chau

Vietnam environment watchdog requests fining polluting hospital

The Environment Protection Agency has proposed fining a hospital in the northern Son La Province VND47 million (US$2,800) for dumping untreated medical wastes and wastewater into its surroundings.

The agency has asked the provincial administration to impose the penalty on Son La General Hospital for violating environmental regulations. The hospital failed to burn medical wastes properly, emitting smelly and toxic gas into the environment, according to the agency’s inspectors. It also dumps excessive amounts of unprocessed wastewater into nearby paddy fields, angering both local residents and farmers. The it discards around 500 cubic meters of untreated wastewater into its environs daily, exceeding by ten times the allowable amount. Duong Ngoc Tan, deputy director of the hospital, admitted his hospital currently disposes medical wastewater and trash directly into the surrounding areas. He said the wastewater treatment system has been broken for seven years. The system, built at a cost of about VND2 billion ($120,300), began operating in 2000 but stopped working after three months. The hospital had previously recruited technicians to repair the facility but they couldn’t fix it. Additionally, the solid waste incinerator has stopped working for over a year due to an electric leakage, said Tan. The hospital is considering measures to tackle the pollution problem and has asked for financial support from local authorities. According to a study conducted last year at 700 hospitals nationwide, over 60 percent of Vietnamese hospitals lack adequate sewage processing systems. Source: VNA

Foreign, domestic scientists flock to bird flu conference

Health officials wearing protective gear place culled chickens into bags at a farm with bird flu in Gimje, about 215 km (135 miles) south of Seoul, April 4, 2008 Around 100 domestic and foreign scientists gathered at an international conference in Hanoi yesterday to search for ways to prevent and control bird flu.

The three-day conference heard bird flu-related reports by international experts, including a model outlining the risk and progress of the virus, epidemiology research on viruses on different kinds of poultry, and campaigns to raise public awareness about the disease and its prevention. First appearing in Vietnam in 2003, bird flu has caused widespread alarm. However, since March 2008, no human bird flu case has been detected in the country and the rate of poultry infected with the disease has dropped rapidly. Source: VNA

Doctor demand to reach 6,000 a year by 2010

Vietnam only has about odonto-stomatology specialist for every 2,500 people
Authorities will improve medical training in a bid to avert a looming shortfall of medical staff, a Ministry of Health online seminar heard Friday.

“The Ministry of Health will instruct its agencies to build an annual training plan in each medical specialty and suggest adequate training forms,” Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien told the seminar, held in Hanoi, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City.

“With the current training, it will take at least ten more years to supply enough medical personnel to meet demand,” she said.

The government recently allowed graduates of lower degrees, such as college medical worker degrees, to study medicine.

“But we should also ensure the quality of training,” Tien said.

“Medical training has specific requirements and the qualification time couldn’t be shortened. The minimum time for training a doctor is six years. And all trainees should be trained in medical ethics,” said Prof. Dr. Dang Van Phuoc, headmaster of the HCMC University of Medicine and Pharmacy.

Rather than only accepting students with the highest entrance examination marks, medical universities should lower their entrance requirements or create a pre-medical course that will allow lower-ranking students to eventually study medicine, the Ministry of Health’s Dr. Truong Viet Dung suggested.

The Ministry of Health estimates the nation will need nearly 6,000 new doctors, 1,500 pharmacists and 17,000 medical workers each year from now until 2010.

A further 1,200-1,500 medical workers were needed in the field of preventative health, the ministry forecast.

Another survey showed Vietnam had 4.1 doctors per 10,000 residents in 2001 but the proportion had fallen to 6.2 doctors per 10,000 residents in 2006.

The country’s population is estimated to be increasing by 1 million every year.

Reported by Lien Chau

Unclean water irks villagers

The water at Nguyen Van Sen’s family stinks even after it’s filtered. Hundreds of families in the area use the same polluted water. Nguyen Van Sen knows the water he uses contains pesticides and grass fertilizers from a nearby golf course but he does not have access to any other water.

For more than three years, hundreds of households in the northern province of Hoa Binh have been living in a resettlement area where the only water source is contaminated by toxic chemicals from the golf course. The families were resettled after their homes were taken to make way for the golf course in the mountainous Lam Son Commune of Luong Son District. The plans for the golf course included a clean water supply for the resettled households but this has yet to be delivered. Recent tests by officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment found the water used by Lam Son residents was highly poisonous. Sen said he spent millions of dong [VND1 million = US$63] on filtering devices and a water tank but using the water still caused skin irritations. “Clean water here is more precious than rice,” the 50-year-old said. Sen said sometimes his family traveled to the mountain two kilometers away to ask for water for drinking and cooking. At one point, some officials from the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment gave Lam Son residents packets of water purifying powder, which costs VND25,000 (US$1.50) apiece, but the powder didn’t prove very effective, he said. Many of the commune’s families once used well-water but now the underground water is also polluted. Rong Tam stream, which ran through the commune’s previous site, once supplied clean water to four wells used by all families in the commune. However, the stream now flows through the golf course before reaching the commune. Chemicals and fertilizers used by the club wash into the stream every day. Nguyen Thi Kim, 48, said the well that her family had used for more than 30 years was now unusable. “It stinks,” she said. Dinh Thi Nhuoc, 61, said it’s not simply the unpleasant smell that mattered. “There are many harmful chemicals that endanger public health,” she said. Bui Duc Hien, chairman of Lam Son People’s Committee, said the commune authorities were not involved in the golf project. He said the province had promised to build a water plant for the residents of the resettlement area. However, the work has been postponed for two years after a 70 meter deep hole was drilled there, Hien said. The water that Lam Son residents are living with was planned as a temporary water supply when the golf ground project was initiated, he said. Source: SGGP

Hong Kong finds H5N1 bird flu in poultry market

Officers from the Health and Environmental Hygiene Department cull 2,700 birds in a market after it was declared an infected area in Hong Kong June 7, 2008 Hong Kong has found the feared H5N1 bird flu virus at a poultry stall in one of the territory's many markets and ordered the culling of 2,700 birds, a government spokeswoman said on Saturday.

The official said Hong Kong had banned poultry imports from mainland China for 21 days, as well as from local farms in the territory, while it worked to discover the source of the infection. She added there had been no human infection detected. The virus was discovered in the Po On Road market in the city's Sham Shui Po neighborhood. It is not the first appearance of the disease in the territory, with infected wild birds discovered in 2007. Since the virus resurfaced in Asia in late 2003, it has killed 241 people in a dozen countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Although most people who have caught bird flu have had direct or indirect contact with infected fowl, experts fear the constantly mutating H5N1 virus could change into a form easily transmitted from person to person. This could sweep the world, killing millions. Source: Reuters

Rivers endanger public health

The Nhue River runs through Hanoi and several neighboring provinces in northern Vietnam Delegates at a conference Friday said Vietnam’s water supply is becoming increasingly polluted due to the lack of sewage and waste treatment facilities.

“For many years, sewage and waste from industrial and residential areas have been dumped into rivers untreated,” said Deputy Head of the Construction Ministry Tran Ngoc Chinh at the Hanoi conference on sewage management and other environmental issues. Chinh said waterways such as the Nhue, Day and Cau rivers in the north and the Dong Nai and Sai Gon rivers in the south were turning grey and smelling fetid. He said such rivers were no longer healthy water supplies. Bui Xuan Doan, Deputy Head of the Ministry’s Infrastructure Bureau, said the water pollution rate in the urban areas is especially high. An estimated 41 percent of untreated sewage from households and 55 percent from industrial zones in Hanoi are discarded into the city’s main rivers such as To Lich, Kim Nguu, Lu and Set, said Doan. He said recent mud tests at Hanoi lakes and rivers revealed high levels of lead, bronze and zinc. Meanwhile, trade villages were also polluting rural areas, said Nguyen Thi Kim Dung, an official from the Water Resources and Environment Center. Dung said the amount of harmful chemicals discarded by one particular trade village in the northern province of Ha Tay is many times higher than the legal limit. The Health Ministry’s Preventive Medicine and Environment Department said more than 80 percent of the diseases in Vietnam – including cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A, and encephalitis – could be traced to the country’s water supply. The figure was due not only to pollution that causes diseases, but also to the fact that water can help carry and transmit disease while also contributing indirectly, as in attracting dengue-carrying mosquitoes, for example. The department also said the nation’s water supply was responsible for more than half of the country’s hospital patients. Looking long-term Although several water treatment methods are implemented in Vietnam, most are just short-term solutions for each river, Chinh said. Chinh said the nation should design water treatment plans for whole river valleys and include several cities and provinces in each plan. Doan said each locality should have separate drains for rain water and sewage water. He also said each local area should build underground drains where sewage can be treated before flowing into rivers or lakes. The criteria for waste processing systems in cities and industrial zones were also discussed at a seminar held in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday. The criteria include the completion of sewage treatment systems in all industrial zones by 2010. At the seminar, experts asked enterprises, who consume resources and dispose large amounts of waste, to cooperate in protecting the environment. Reported by Quang Duan

Poverty trap: underage laborers work into the night

Underage workers employed at an illegal factory in HCMC fall asleep on their sewing machines. Nguyen Van Quan quit school in fifth grade and found work in Ho Chi Minh City through a labor agent.

Now 17, he looks like a 13-year-old boy, weighing a mere 36 kilograms (80 pounds). After a previous employer in Tan Phu District refused to pay his salary, Quan now works for a home-based business but still without a contract. It is in Binh Tan District and does contract work for garment companies. His new employer has promised to pay him VND6 million, or around US$375, for two years and also provide daily meals and a place to stay, Quan said. Sitting next to Quan, Tuan, 13, was intently folding finished T-shirts. “My family is very poor,” Tuan said. “My elder sisters and I left our hometown in Thai Nguyen Province to work here for VND6 million for two years.” Tuan said he has been doing this job for almost a year while his two sisters started several years ago. The business the boys work for is only one of hundreds of its kind in Binh Hung Hoa Ward. The underage laborers, mostly from northern provinces, have to work every day from 6 a.m. to midnight, with one-hour breaks at noon and 6 p.m. They all look pale and tired, with dark circles under their eyes. Sometimes they nod off right at their sewing machines. The employers neither sign contracts with them nor provide them health insurance. Those who have experience will receive a VND10 million ($625) for the two years, while newcomers get VND4 million ($245). Earlier this month, two businesses were each fined more than VND8 million ($490) for operating without permission and for violating contract and insurance policies. Phan Van Rac, chairman of the Binh Hung Hoa Ward People’s Committee, admitted it is the fault of the committee for letting such businesses continue to operate illegally. Addressing the issue of underage workers, Rac said the home businesses always find ways to cover up their wrongdoing. Since the laborers badly need their jobs, they often tell authorities they are relatives of the owners, he said. After learning that many underage workers have to work until midnight, Rac said he would ask the local police to check the ages of the laborers and that any home businesses violating the Labor Law would be penalized. Ho Tam, vice chairman of the HCMC Committee for Population, Family and Children, said the Labor Law prohibits the employment of children below 15 with the exception of certain jobs specified by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs. The law also states that laborers under 18 are not allowed to work for more than seven hours a day or 42 hours a week, Tam said. Reported by Hoai Nam

Beautiful Flowers

Flowers

Graffiti on ancient relic reveals cultural ignorance

A recent Vietnam Television spot on an ancient stone field in the northern mountainous district of Sa Pa showed one of Vietnam’s cultural treasures – ancient stone carvings – being ruined by reckless graffiti.

While scientists have yet to decipher exactly what the Sa Pa stone field means, the mysterious and beautiful patterns on the stones are slowly being covered up by newer graffiti writing. Through the ups and downs of Vietnam history, ignorance and the lack of material means have left the ancient stones alone for years. Lao Cai Province authorities recently began marketing the stone field as a tourist attraction. But as the stone field is exploited for tourism, it has yet to be preserved and protected. Visitors have carved their names and crude pictures on the stones, but the mysterious patterns underneath will most likely stay there for years to come. The youngsters do not understand that their graffiti will be remembered as the embarrassments of irresponsible and uncultured people, but the carvings that they are slowly destroying will always be revered. Some people may think there are other more important issues than the ancient stone field, especially since we don’t know what the pictures on the stones mean yet. But we should fear that once we understand what the ancient people were trying to communicate, it will be too late and all will be lost to cheap graffiti. By Thu Dong

Blood

Hanoi’s Hematology Institute Wednesday signed a contract to take out a VND103 billion (U$6.3 million) loan to upgrade its blood disease treatment center.

With the loan from Vietnam Development Bank, the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion aims to enhance the capability of the center, which has been under construction since late 2006. Expected to become operational in May next year, the center will have Southeast Asia’s most cutting-edge medical equipment and will specialize in bone marrow transplants. It will also be the main supplier of blood products to hospitals in Hanoi and northern provinces. The National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, the only hospital in northern Vietnam that specializes in blood diseases, is now often overcrowded with patients. Source: Lao Dong

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire

Students hold placards during an Anti-tobacco awareness campaign on the eve of World-Tobacco Day, in Mumbai on May 30, 2008 A World Health Organization representative says brazen tobacco advertising in Vietnam is hooking the nation’s youth on the deadly drug.

Linh is only 30, but he has already lost his hair in chemotherapy for lung cancer, which he developed after a mere 13 years of smoking. Linh, an engineer whose doctor describes his disease as “fatal,” shares a room at Hanoi’s National K Hospital with a 42-year-old who also has cancer, an upper jaw affliction he developed after smoking a pipe for 22 years. Head of the Health Ministry’s Vietnam Tobacco Control Program Ly Ngoc Kinh said up to 40,000 people die of tobacco-related diseases annually in Vietnam, adding that the figure is expected to rise in the near future. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that teen smoking is on the increase in many Asian countries, including Vietnam, but the global body said that local policies geared towards dissuading the youth from smoking are limited in the Southeast Asian nation. More than 50 percent of adult males in Vietnam now smoke, Kinh said. A majority of them started smoking as teenagers while 10 percent began smoking between the ages of 13-15. Eighty percent of lung and upper jaw cancer patients in Vietnam have a history of heavy smoking from a very early age, said Pham Duy Hien, vice director of National K Hospital. Nguyen Xuan Nghiem, head of the National Tuberculosis and Lung Hospital’s Recuperation and Emergency Department, said the number of patients suffering from lung-related and respiratory diseases at his facility is increasing by an estimated 15 percent annually. Jean-Marrc Olives, the WHO’s chief representative in Vietnam, said that around one billion teenagers smoke all over the world while 85 percent of them are in developing countries. Around the globe, about 5.4 million people die tobacco-related deaths every year, he said. Policy gap Vietnam has already banned tobacco advertising in the mass media and has increased the amount of information about the detriments of smoking that must be placed on packs of cigarettes. However, the WHO and the Health Ministry agree that the solutions are not strong, effective or comprehensive enough as the number of smokers in Vietnam continues to increase. The Vietnamese government tax on tobacco is low compared to other countries. At two billion packs per year, Thailand’s cigarette consumption is just half of Vietnam’s. However, the Thai government soaks up US$1 billion in tobacco taxes every year, 2.5 times higher than Vietnam’s $400 million in tobacco tax revenues. Many tobacco brands in Vietnam are launching more sophisticated advertising and marketing campaigns to attract younger customers. Many tobacco companies have scantily-clad young women selling their products table to table at bars, restaurants and coffee shops. Many brands promote their products with raffles, lucky draws and games. Olives said that walking through Hanoi, one comes across a dazzling array of shops painted with brightly colored cigarette ads. He said such displays were alarming and obviously geared towards the youth. Every year, the WHO recognizes World No Tobacco Day on May 31 in an effort to raise global awareness of the dangers of tobacco. The event this year, with the theme Tobacco-Free Youth, calls for a complete ban on tobacco advertising in participating countries for the duration of the day. WHO WESTERN PACIFIC SMOKING STATISTICS, REPORTED IN 2002: - About one in five young teens (aged 13-15) smoke worldwide. - Between 80,000 and 100,000 children start smoking every day throughout the world. Half of these new smokers live in Asia. - Evidence shows that around 50 percent of those who start smoking in adolescence go on to smoke for at least 15-20 years. - About a quarter of the Western Pacific Region’s youth will die from smoking. - The younger a child is when he or she starts smoking, the stronger the chances are for long-term addiction. Smokers who start at a very young age seem to be less likely to quit. - More than 85 percent of the world’s 1.8 billion young people aged 10-24 live in developing nations where there is little in the way of anti-smoking legislation to protect them. - Half of all long-term smokers will die tobacco-related deaths. Source: SGGP

Drug makers must meet WHO standards by July 1

Vietnamese drug manufacturers who fail by July 1 to meet Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) as set out by the World Health Organization (WHO), will be suspended, the Health Ministry announced Thursday.

Drug makers who do not have GMP-WHO certification will still be allowed to produce topical ointments, however, and certified companies can incorporate uncertified ones. Out of 174 drug manufacturers in Vietnam, just 18 currently have GMPWHO certification while 42 are GMPASEAN certified – a set of standards laid out by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. On the WHO’s development scale, Vietnam’s drug production is ranked 2.5 to 3 out of a possible 4. This means only some drugs are allowed to be manufactured and exported. Source: SGGP

Drug makers must meet WHO standards by July 1

Vietnamese drug manufacturers who fail by July 1 to meet Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) as set out by the World Health Organization (WHO), will be suspended, the Health Ministry announced Thursday.

Drug makers who do not have GMP-WHO certification will still be allowed to produce topical ointments, however, and certified companies can incorporate uncertified ones. Out of 174 drug manufacturers in Vietnam, just 18 currently have GMPWHO certification while 42 are GMPASEAN certified – a set of standards laid out by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. On the WHO’s development scale, Vietnam’s drug production is ranked 2.5 to 3 out of a possible 4. This means only some drugs are allowed to be manufactured and exported. Source: SGGP

Ministry moves to help Myanmar’s cyclone victims

The Ministry of Health has said it will send a 14-member taskforce to Myanmar to help victims of cyclone Nargis, scheduled to leave on June 3.

Members of the mission will conduct medical check-ups and participate in disease control activities during their half-month stay. Cyclone Nargis, which tore through Myanmar in early May, has killed an estimated 78,000 people, left 56,000 missing and caused US$11 billion in damages. The Vietnamese Government had earlier provided $200,000 in emergency aid to help Myanmar recover from the disaster’s aftermath. The Vietnam Red Cross Central Committee by May 30 had received almost VND700 million ($43,750) in donations from organizations and individuals to help disaster victims in Myanmar and China. Source: VNA

Unilever funds hygiene education for kids in north

The Unilever Vietnam Fund (UVF) announced last weekend it would contribute VND2 billion (US$123,000) towards a project that aims to improve hygiene awareness among kids and teachers in Vietnam’s northern provinces.

The Personal Hygiene Education Project will benefit around 6,000 kids, parents, and teachers from 35 nursery schools in Ha Giang, Lang Son, Thai Nguyen, Lao Cai and Cao Bang until the end of this year. The project will teach children under six how to brush their teeth and wash their hands and face effectively. The program will also strive to enhance teachers’ hygiene knowledge to maintain their own health as well as the children they care for. The UVF and the Preschool Education Agency under the Education and Training Ministry have been cooperating on the five-year hygiene awareness plan that began last year. By the project’s end, it will have been implemented in 175 schools in 25 provinces and cities nationwide with total funding of around VND10 billion ($615,000). Last year, the program reached more than 300 teachers and 9,000 children in southern localities including Can Tho, Hau Giang, Vinh Long, Kien Giang and Tra Vinh. The UVF was founded in 2004 and aims to enhance the living conditions of Vietnamese throughout the country. Source: VNA

Transcultural compassion

Dr. Naomi Shield from the US examines a patient with an ankle injury at the Viet Duc Hospital in Hanoi An American surgeon says she felt compelled to help young Vietnamese patients after seeing the hope and fear in their parents’ eyes.

It’s mid-afternoon and Dr. Naomi Shield hurries to the examination room of Hanoi’s Viet Duc Hospital where four patients are anxiously awaiting her arrival. One of them is a three-year-old with flat feet (also known as pes planus or fallen arches), a condition in which the arch of the foot collapses, sometimes painfully, with the entire sole of the foot coming into complete or near-complete contact with the ground. Another patient is a five-year-old child, N.A.T., who was born with a malformed tibia in each leg and is only able to walk on his knees. Gently lifting N.A.T.’s feet, Shield, an orthopedic surgeon, says this is a common condition but if the child is not treated, he will never walk properly. “Let’s help him so that he can walk again, play football and socialize with others,” she said. It’s just a typical day for Shield during her annual month-long trip to Vietnam. Despite her busy schedule back home at a Wichita clinic in Kansas, she still manages to find time to raise funds and make trips to Southeast Asia each year. Over the past several years, Shield and her colleagues from the American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) have provided treatment to more than 400 Vietnamese patients and updated local doctors with new techniques in orthopedic treatment. They have also provided medical equipment and machinery to two other Vietnamese hospitals. “The most important thing is that she and her colleagues annually come to Vietnam to introduce new techniques to us at their expense,” said Ngo Van Toan, head of Viet Duc Hospital’s Traumatology and Orthopedics department. Shield made her first trip to Vietnam in 2002 when AOFAS initiated a charitable program to cooperate with doctors from Viet Duc Hospital. At the time, Shield’s team was very small, consisting of just four American doctors including herself, but they remained committed to working hard for their Vietnamese patients. “I have faced many cases which are much more difficult than those in the US,” said Shield. “Many patients have to wait a very long time before meeting doctors and receiving treatment.” The AOFAS group also began focusing on specialized areas while introducing new techniques to the Vietnamese doctors. A life-changing look Shield recalls a day six years ago in Vinh Town in the central province of Nghe An, when she and her colleagues were guiding children into a room to perform checkups. At the window, the children’s parents watched them anxiously, full of hope and love. The look in their eyes, says Shield, is what compelled her to come back to Vietnam again and again. Since that time, Shield has made eight more trips back and has changed the lives of countless patients. She can even speak a little Vietnamese, which helps her enormously in communicating with her patients. On this year’s trip, Shield will perform surgery on a patient she has already been treating for many years. V.A., 15, was born with a malformed pelvis and legs. Finally, after years of examinations and discussions with her colleagues, Shield will perform the delicate operation that could change V.A.’s life by helping the young patient to walk more normally. Shield will also visit the northern provinces of Thai Nguyen and Ha Tay, where more patients are awaiting surgery, said Toan. Watching Shield lift her patients’ feet with such care and concern, her Vietnamese partners say the love she has for her patients clearly transcends all cultural boundaries. Source: Tuoi Tre