HCMC to crack down on unclean food purveyors

Food stalls at a market in downtown Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City has set up teams of health inspectors to check as many food producers, merchants and vendors as possible in the monthlong national food safety campaign that started Wednesday.

HCMC People’s Committee Vice Chairman Nguyen Thanh Tai warned that stiff penalties awaited any producer caught breaching the food hygiene regulations. The health department’s inspections will cover the production and trading of bottled water, ice, soy sauce and milk as well as the kitchens at schools, hospitals, industrial parks and export processing zones in the city’s 300 wards. Nguyen Thanh Phong, deputy head of the Health Ministry’s Bureau of Food Hygiene and Safety, said it was an urgent issue in HCMC as the city’s population was increasing rapidly. “It’s not only the matter of food poisoning, but also the threat of epidemics,” Phong said. HCMC has more than 46,800 food producers and vendors, or ten percent of the national total, according to Phong. He said only half of the city’s residents were aware of the issue. Phong said the city should set up a food safety agency, conduct more inspections, and offer to train people in food safety awareness. The health department said it would inspect and issue food safety certificates to food producers and traders, with a target of 75 percent of food traders and 100 percent of the food caterers and kitchens at schools and industrial parks. They would also encourage awareness of food safety from enterprises in the field. Le Truong Giang, the health department’s deputy director, ordered that the kitchens of schools, restaurants and industrial parks be inspected and warned that these establishments were responsible for the ingredients they used and the food they served. Food poisoning Last year, there were 22 reported cases of mass food poisoning in HCMC. The 1,618 adults and children who became violently ill were mostly from schools and industrial zones, the health department said. Health inspectors found violations by more than half of the 16 licensed alcoholic beverage producers and merchants they checked in 2008. A pilot project to present certificates to street vendors, carried out in Hoc Mon and District 6, has so far certified only 12 percent of them. Recent inspections also found dozens of bottled water producers violating the safety regulations, with some products found to be contaminated by dangerous bacteria. Many small food traders in District 5’s Kim Bien Market have no safety certificate, while some of them display food and industrial chemicals side-byside. Most of them have not been trained properly and given the appropriate knowledge, so they only deal with problems as they arise rather than take preventive action, Giang said. He said the department had detected and confiscated a large number of cakes infected with bacteria that were ready for sale last Christmas that could have caused mass poisoning. However, Giang said the management of food safety had improved recently thanks to the establishment of several wholesale markets. Around 90 percent of aquatic products, 75 percent of vegetables and 80 percent of meat consumed in the city now come from three major wholesale markets – Tam Binh in Thu Duc District, Tan Xuan in Hoc Mon District and Binh Dien in District 8. “We have managed about 80 percent of the food in the marketplace,” Giang said. However, he said the department was yet to issue any safety certificate to food chains which have emerged recently to build systems of breeding/cultivating, harvesting/slaughtering and selling. Taking the message nationwide Hanoi’s Steering Committee for Food Hygiene and Safety said they would set up six teams to inspect food hygiene regulations in production, trading and advertising. Each team will inspect five districts and violators could be named in the media, as well as fined. In Quang Ngai Province, health inspectors will check farms, factories, markets and shops while the provincial government will run a publicity campaign to make people more aware of food safety. Khanh Hoa Province authorities also boasted of better food safety management and encouraged all government offices, food producers and residents to participate in the campaign. As part of the campaign, cars bearing banners are doing the rounds of Nha Trang to publicize the campaign and its message. Between 2004 and 2008, there were 43 cases of mass food poisoning in Khanh Hoa. Four of the 515 victims died. Since then, four cases have put 50 people in the sickbed. In Nam Dinh Province, the authorities have ordered thorough inspections, held several conferences on the issue, and publicized the campaign widely in the media. The inspections are to be done at the provincial, district and communal level. Health Department inspectors will check kitchens at industrial parks and schools as well as the trading of milk and bottled water and the production of soft drinks. In Quang Binh Province, the publicity for the campaign will be everywhere. Tran Cong Thuat, vice chairman of the Quang Binh People’s Committee, said this was important as the current fines did little to deter violators. In Ninh Thuan Province, hundreds of young people and health officials attended a rally Wednesday to encourage greater awareness of food safety. Inspections of more than 3,000 food producers and traders last year revealed violations by nearly a third of them. In Quang Binh alone, there were 223 recorded cases of mass food poisoning last year. Source: Agencies

HCMC to provide hospitality for hospital conference

Ho Chi Minh City will host the Hospital Management Asia conference in August, the city’s Medical Association and Private Medical Practitioners’ Association announced Wednesday.

The meeting would focus on improving hospital management, organizers said. Planners expect 600 delegates from 21 countries and territories at the event, with half the attendees coming from Vietnam, the associations said. More than 230 presentations, including seven by Vietnamese delegates, will be given at the conference August 12-14, said organizers. Hospital Management Asia is held annually to promote new ideas in hospital management and discuss the quality of community healthcare services around the globe. Reported by Thanh Tung

City health sector gets record annual budget

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health has been allotted a record VND1.5 trillion (US$86.2 million) for its budget this year, the department announced Wednesday.

It said this is the highest ever allocation by the municipal administration for one year. The funds will be used for upgrading healthcare establishments and hospitals, building new ones and purchasing medical equipment. Among the first establishments expected to be upgraded are the Cu Chi Hospital, the Traditional Medicine Hospital, Hospital of DermatoVenereology of HCMC, the HCMC Eye Hospital and the People‘s Hospital 115. Reported by Thanh Tung

Illegal blowfish trade alive and well

A woman cleans blowfish at Sa Huynh Port in the central province of Quang Ngai. Despite local bans in many areas, people still eat the fish, certain parts of which are poisonous. Police in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang have been unable to control the illegal blowfish racket, even after seizing more than 35 tons of the poisonous fish since February.

Le Thanh Liem, chief inspector of the provincial Health Department, said it was difficult to crack down on the racket with a coastline some 200 kilometers long. “It’s hard to control the issue.” The catch, trade and processing of the blowfish is illegal in several Vietnamese localities, including Kien Giang and Ho Chi Minh City. Blowfish are the second most poisonous vertebrate in the world after the golden poison frog. The skin and certain internal organs are fatal to humans but the meat is considered a delicacy. Chief inspector Liem said part of the problem was that the current fines of up to tens of millions of dong were not enough of a deterrent to the smugglers who make huge profits in the illegal trade. “We’re considering asking the province’s People Committee to implement stricter penalties for blowfish trading,” he said. Busts make no dent Kien Giang police seized 18 tons of humpback blowfish in the province’s latest smuggling bust on Tuesday, said Liem. The drivers caught trucking the fish told police they had been carrying the contraband from Tac Cau Fish Port in the province’s Chau Thanh District to distribute in An Giang Province and the city of Can Tho. Police fined the drivers VND20 million (US$1,125) and destroyed all the fish. Investigators said it was the single largest shipment of blowfish discovered in the province to date. On March 26, inspectors from the health department found household seafood producer Nguyen Khac Huy processing seven tons of blowfish in the provincial capital of Rach Gia. Under questioning, Huy said he had bought 12 tons of the fish on March 23-24 to process and sell to dried fish producers in town, according to inspection reports. He sold four tons of the fish before the inspection, he said. One month earlier, inspectors discovered 200 kilograms of blowfish drying at another small residential facility in Rach Gia. Nguyen Van Doi, owner of the facility, said he had bought the fish last November, inspectors reported. He said he had been selling some 200 kilograms of blowfish every two days. On March 4, an inspection of the Vinh Trang Seafood Processing Enterprise in Hon Dat District unearthed 1.8 tons of blowfish, including 500 kilograms of dried fish. Killer fish Hoang Van Hung from Dong Hoi Town in Quang Binh Province died at the Vietnam Cuba Dong Hoi Hospital December 22 last year after eating blowfish. A day earlier, the hospital managed to resuscitate 80-year-old Le Xuan Sen after he was admitted in critical condition after eating the fish. Nguyen Thanh from Thua Thien-Hue Province was killed after eating blowfish last October 18. He and three others had cooked the blowfish while they were drinking the previous afternoon. They all ate the fish but Thanh was the only one affected. In September 2008, three people from Chau Thanh District recovered at Kien Giang General Hospital after being hospitalized in critical condition from blowfish poisoning. Nguyen Van Nhanh and his friend Nguyen Van Ngoc were rushed to a hospital in An Giang province last May after eating blowfish. Nhanh recovered but Ngoc died on the way. A 2008 study conducted in Gio Linh District, Quang Tri Province, found that 97.4 percent of the local population ate blowfish somewhat regularly. The Health Ministry has warned that most of the 66 species of blowfish in Vietnam are poisonous. The toxin is contained in the eggs, liver, gall, blood, gills, skin and belly flesh. Female fish are more poisonous, especially in breeding season between March and July, according to the ministry. The poison is very strong and is only half as deadly after boiling at 100 degrees Celsius for six hours. Around 10 grams of blowfish meat can kill an adult in between 1.5-8 hours. Symptoms of blowfish poisoning include numbed lips and tongue before the condition spreads to the limbs. This loss of feeling is often accompanied by headache, bellyache, nausea, shortness of breath and in the worst cases can put patients into a coma and cause complete respiratory failure. There’s no medicine to treat the poison, according to the ministry. Treatment focuses on supplying oxygen and providing injections to prevent cardiac arrest. Reported by Thanh Dung

Singaporean has Asia's first combined heart, liver transplant

Lau Chin Kwee (R), a 58-year-old Singaporean pastor, is seen Friday with his son after a successful heart and liver transplant at a hospital in Singapore. A 58-year-old Singaporean pastor has undergone a simultaneous heart and liver transplant, the first time such an operation has been carried out in Asia, doctors said Friday.

The 13-hour surgery, which took place two weeks ago at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH), was needed to treat a rare genetic condition affecting Lau Chin Kwee, his doctors told a press conference. "Things are looking good. He is doing as well as he can be," said Tan Chee Kiat, director of the liver transplant program at the state-run hospital. Lau suffers from a condition known as Familial Amyloid Polyneuropathy, in which a gene mutation causes the liver to produce abnormal proteins that affect the nerves. Eventually, the liver will no longer function properly. Further tests showed the pastor's heart had also been affected by the same genetic condition, the doctors said. Tan said there was no cure for the disease except for a transplant. More than a dozen surgeons, nurses and anesthesiologists were on hand for the operation. "I have nobody to speak to except my God, so first words must be thanksgiving and praises but I am certainly very, very thankful to be able to wake up from this side of life instead of beyond," said Lau. "The gift of life is really a miracle." Source: AFP

Men should hold onto dongs, due to recent slashes

Doctors are reporting an increase in the number of men being rushed to hospital after their sexual organs have been cut off by jealous wives or girlfriends.

The good news for the castrated men is that the amputated organ can be successfully reattached if it is preserved properly. Cho Ray and Binh Dan hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City have admitted several such cases lately. Cho Ray recently admitted a forty-year-old man from Tay Ninh Province whose jealous wife had done the dirty deed. It was the girlfriend who took him to the hospital along with his severed member in a plastic bag inside an icebox, while the shaken and contrite wife went straight to the police. TO PRESERVE A SEVERED BODY PART: Put it in a clean plastic bag Add 0.9 percent salt water (standard saline solution) Place the bag in an icebox and take it to the hospital Do not let the severed body part come into direct contact with the ice The doctors who reattached his penis say it was only successful because the girlfriend had preserved it properly for the 12 hours it took to get the man to hospital. In another case, a fifty-year-old man in HCMC was admitted to Binh Dan Hospital for the same reason. This time the culprit was the girlfriend while the penis preserver and the one who took him to hospital was the wife. Dr. Nguyen Thanh Nhu of Binh Dan Hospital says the surgery was successful as the man had reached hospital around one hour after the incident. Other cases turn out poorly for the man as the wife continues to vent her anger by throwing out the severed member for some dog to eat, or putting it in boiling water to cook for a while. Dr. Duong Quang Vu of Cho Ray Hospital, who has become a specialist in reconnecting severed penises, says jealousy is usually the motive, but not always. On Wednesday, Dr. Vu reattached the penis of a mentally ill man from Dong Nai Province who had cut it off in a fit of derangement. The man’s father had preserved the organ properly and taken it and his son to hospital. The operation to reattach a severed penis is complicated, says Dr. Vu, because the doctors must reconnect arteries, veins, nerves and other tiny parts. “Now that we’re experienced, the operation takes about two and a half hours. It used to take up to four hours.” His colleague Dr. Tran Ngoc Sinh says 80 to 90 percent of penile function is restored if the operation goes well. Erections return about a month after surgery but ejaculation may be delayed and the penis could be a little smaller than before. Four out of five operations are successful, according to Dr. Sinh. The failures mostly result from improper storage of the severed penis. Dr. Sinh also mentions that it’s impossible to make the organ longer during the operation. Reported by Thanh Tung

Vietnam says no to equitizing state-run hospitals

Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam's Communist Party said state-owned hospitals will not be privatized, effectively ending a debate of the past few years over a plan to diversify ownership of treatment facilities in the health sector.

But Vietnam encourages the private sector to join in building new hospitals run as joint-stock companies, joint ventures and private clinics, Saturday's Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberation Saigon) daily run by the Ho Chi Minh City Communist Party chapter cited a Politburo directive as saying. The Politburo said the government should use state budget funds, bond issuance receipts and foreign aid to upgrade state-owned hospitals and provide treatment to the poor, ethnic minorities and children below the age of 6, the daily said. In 2007 the Health Ministry and Ho Chi Minh City government planned to allow Cho Ray Hospital to sell shares to the public but the project was stalled because of social organisations blocked it, fearing a rise in fees. Vietnam's state-run healthcare system is straining to treat a population of 86 million that is vulnerable to a wide variety of infectious and non-infectious diseases. The middle class that has emerged in the booming economy in recent years has used internationally-operated clinics or traveled to Singapore or Thailand for treatment of serious illnesses. The health sector's value accounted for only 1.25 per cent of Vietnam's gross domestic product of US$87 billion (RM313 billion) in 2008, down from 1.41 per cent in 2007, government figures show. Source: Reuters

US ophthalmologist to train doctors in Da Nang

Dr. Timothy McCulley, director of Ophthalmic Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery at California University, Monday began a training program for ophthalmologists at the Da Nang Eye Hospital.

The training is part of a program sponsored by Orbis International, a non-profit organization in the US, since 2006. This is the third advanced training course following two earlier courses conducted by volunteer doctors and professors on the Orbis Flying Hospital in Da Nang in 2006 and 2008. Orbis International aims to help Da Nang Eye Hospital become a leading eye care center in the central and Central Highlands regions. Dr. McCulley will also examine 30 patients, and is expected to perform surgeries on 10-15 of them. He will also give the central hospital special tools used for reconstructing eyes. Surgeries will be provided free of charge to poor patients. Reported by Dieu Hien