Malaria epidemic may recur this year
A malaria epidemic is likely to spread across many provinces and cities this year, according to Dr. Tran Thanh Duong, Head of the National Institute of Malariology, Parasitology and Entomology (NIMPE).
Speaking at a conference in Hanoi on April 1, Dr. Duong warned of the recurrence of malaria in the central and southern regions during 2013.
Although nearly 44,000 people contracted the disease in 2012, or 4 percent lower than the previous year’s figure, the number of infections remained high, said Duong.
The hardest-hit areas were the central and Central Highland regions.
The mortality rate due to malaria in 2012 fell by 43 percent compared to a year earlier. Most fatal cases were reported in Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, Binh Thuan and Binh Phuoc provinces, he added.
Deputy Minister of Health Professor Nguyen Thanh Long said more research will be conducted and applied to prevent and stamp out the epidemic.
The NIMPE will boost information dissemination programmes to raise public awareness of the dangerous disease, especially for those living in the most vulnerable areas.
The Ministry of Health will also help medical workers increase their capacity for preventing and controlling malaria and provide malaria patients with updated information about the disease following instructions from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Health-insurance-for-all project approved
Eighty per cent of Vietnamese population will be insured by 2020, as part of a newly-ratified Government scheme aiming at accessing health insurance for all.
The Government aims to have 80 per cent
of population insured by 2020.—Photo dantri.vn
Statistics issued by Viet Nam Social Insurance Agency estimates that about 57.8 million people have owned the health insurance cards, accounting for approximately 67 per cent of the total national population by May 2012.
Distribution of the cards among groups, for example farmers and rural workers, who have previously had a low rate of purchasing health insurance is set to be a focus of the initiative.
The Government will subsidise 100 per cent of premium for households living in underprivileged areas in mountainous provinces, where poorer households in rural areas earn an average income of VND401,000 – 520,000 ($19-$25) per month.
Students will receive a discounted rate of 50 per cent of the total expenses for buying the cards.
In addition, the construction of new hospitals, upgrading existing hospitals in Ha Noi and HCM City are expected to be assist in reducing over crowding.
Southeast Asia dominates entries for ANN logo contest
Majority of the entries submitted for Asia News Network’s logo contest came from Southeast Asia, with the Philippines accounting for 31 per cent of total submissions.
ANN’s server was swamped on Sunday, the last day in the month-long period of submission, as contestants tried to beat the deadline.
More than 1,000 entries have been received including those from Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Nepal, India, Vietnam and as far as the US, Belgium, Great Britain and Mexico.
“Most of the entries reflect quite a good understanding of the dynamism of Asia and it was very interesting how they symbolized Asia’s leap forward on the global stage,” said Mr Pana Janviroj, ANN executive director.
The elimination round will be conducted via online voting from April 3-26. The top 20 will move to the final round with the winner receiving US$3,000.
“The editors will definitely have a hard time picking the winner in this eagerly awaited event,” said Mr Janviroj, who will serve as one of the judges in the final round together with other ANN editors and select art directors.
The judging will be held to coincide with the annual board meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on April 30. The winner will be selected according to relevance (60 per cent), technical elements (20 per cent) and creativity (20 per cent).
Entries can be viewed at: http://www.asianewsnet.net/result.html.
ANN was launched in 1999. Aside from its website and news services, it also publishes AsiaNews magazine, which will go fully digital this month.
Traffic death toll rises slightly in first quarter
Traffic deaths in the first quarter of this year rose by 0.7 percent against the same period last year, according to statistics from the National Committee for Traffic Safety.
The period saw more than 6,500 traffic accidents, killing nearly 2,600 people and injuring another 6,400.
The committee said the number of accidents and injuries declined by 21.54 percent and 28.07 percent year on year, respectively.
Road accidents still claimed the highest death toll – over 2,500 deaths – followed by rail accidents 42 and waterways 15.
According to the committee, motorists without safe helmets, drunken driving, overloaded buses and over-speeding are still key reasons for the accidents among others.
Firms warned: Don’t send staff to Angola
The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs has not allowed any enterprise to send workers to Angola, the ministry’s Department of Overseas Labour has announced on its website in a bid to warn against vacancy ads that recruit workers to work in the African country.
The department said Vietnamese professionals specialising in health, agriculture and education sectors currently working in Angola had been sent there under labour co-operation agreements between Viet Nam and Angola years ago.
It noted that in recent years, many Vietnamese workers had come to Angola to work without legal labour contract as they were deceived by attractive promises of some enterprises and individuals.
Many were subject to unsafe working environment and working outside the law, which led them to being caught by the local police and then deported home.
Currently, vacancy ads about job opportunities in Angola can easily be found on some websites such as thongtinviec.com.vn or hn.vieclam.24h.com.
At a meeting held by the Viet Nam Association of Manpower Supply with labour export companies last week, Le Van Thanh, deputy director of the department, reported that its recent working visit to Angola found that the working conditions and financial capacity of companies in that country did not meet their expectations.
He said sending workers to Angola would be posing them to risks, that is why the department decided not to allow labour export to the country through the arrangements by enterprises for the time being.
According to the Vietnamese Embassy in Angola, occupational accidents and diseases claimed the lives of 18 Vietnamese citizens last year.
The department warned that those who wanted to go to work overseas should be cautious against the appealing ads and promises of enterprises and individuals to avoid deceptions.
It also announced that those having questions about labour opportunities overseas should contact the department directly or its labour assistance office, the local Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and local job placement centres, for accurate information.
Murder, destruction hearings set to begin
The Hai Phong City People’s Court will this month open two trials of 11 people involved in the coercive land reclamation in Vinh Quang Commune of Tien Lang District.
According to the court, the first trial will see six people tried on charges of murder and resisting on-duty officers. It is set to begin today and will last until April 5.
The second, which will take place from April 8 to 10, will judge five others for the destruction of property and poor sense of responsibility that causes serious consequences.
There will be a total of 20 lawyers in the two trials.
The land seizure took place on January 5, 2012.
Vocational lessons help minority youth
Under the scorching sun in a rice field in Central Highland Gia Lai Province, four ethnic minority youths repair a mechanical plough.
Dinh Xen, one of the four, said they had dismantled the machine to repair and clean it.
Xen and the other three, Dinh Khup, Dinh Den and Dinh Tham, of De Ba village in KBang District, can now repair farm implements after attending a training course organised by the province’s Job Services Centre.
In the past the locals had to look for mechanics from elsewhere to repair broken agriculture machinery.
Similarly, Nguyen Thi Thanh Tam of Tu Chrang village in the district grows mushrooms after attending a training course organised by the local commune.
“I liked learning how to grow mushrooms because the farming techniques are simple and materials for growing mushrooms are available here,” she said.
“I can earn extra income from growing mushrooms.”
Tam and Xen are among thousands of youths in Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) provinces to have been provided with vocational training in recent years. A majority of them belong to ethnic minorities.
Since 2006 Gia Lai has provided training for 25,700 rural workers, according to figures from local vocational training centres. The rate of skilled workers has increased from 11.5 per cent in 2005 to 30 per cent.
Nguyen Tan Thanh, head of the provincial Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs’ Vocational Training Division, said the number of ethnic minority youths working for companies has consistently increased.
Gia Lai plans to provide vocational training for around 6,800 rural workers this year, according to its People’s Committee.
In Dak Nong Province, more than 9,000 rural workers, mostly belonging to ethnic minorities, have been provided with vocational training since 2008, according to the local Youth Union.
The Dak Nong Intermediate Vocational School, the province’s leading vocational school, offers various free courses, including those on farming, animal husbandry, sewing, motorbike and agriculture machinery repair, and others.
The provincial People’s Committee supports poor trainees by providing an allowance of VND15,000 a day during their training. Ethnic minority trainees get an extra VND200,000 a month.
Those who live more than 15km from the school are also provided with VND200,000.
Of Dak Nong’s 132,000 youths, 27,340 belong to ethnic groups, according to the provincial Youth Union.
Y Quang B’Krong, its secretary, said the union, in co-operation with vocational training centres, would offer more vocational training courses for youths, especially those from ethnic minorities.
It has also worked with local authorities to provide jobs for trainees and loans on easy terms for them to set up their own business, he added.
Binh Thuan bans shellfish trading
Individuals and organisations in the south-central coastal province of Binh Thuan will not be allowed to trade, transport or process certain local shellfish – including clams and scallops – for four months.
The move aims to ease the consequences of overfishing by local people.
As of September 30, the province expects to completely remove nets used to catch lobsters in some places in order to ensure safety for tourists and boats.
Houses collapse due to soil erosion
Seven houses in Can Tho City’s Phong Dien District collapsed and fell into a river early yesterday morning because of soil erosion.
Located on a 50-metre riverbank in My Ai Hamlet in My Khanh Commune, the homes sustained total damages of VND1 billion (US$47,600). The collapse was due to soil erosion.
Tran Hoang Lam, chairman of the My Khanh People’s Committee, said the Phong Dien District authorities visited the site and provided shelter for the families in the afternoon.
Residents in My Ai Hamlet reported that they were terrified when they saw cracks in the walls of their homes at 10.30 pm on March 29.
Commune authorities have also helped the households move their belongings to safety.
Autistic children need better care
The number of autistic children will be increasing in the coming years unless early educational interventions are made, experts warn.
Autism is one of the most common disorders that accounts for 30 percent of learning disabilities at schools, according to the Hanoi Department of Education and Training.
Many schools refuse to enrol autistic children, and autistic children care centres require high tuition fees, making it difficult for the sufferers to integrate into society.
Le Dinh Tuan, director of a training centre for autistic children in Hanoi, says lifelong education and interventions play an important role in treating children with autism.
Any ineffective interventions and parental neglect can lead to uncontrollable behaviour amongst autistic sufferers.
Autistic treatment requires close collaboration from parents and friends of the sufferers, as well as from various sectors and the whole community, says Tuan.
He points to the fact that many sufferers have performed equally with their ordinary peers after interventions, and some even have excelled in their studies.
The Ministry of Education and Training and relevant agencies needs to introduce early intervention and education policies to support autistic children, Tuan suggests.
A survey conducted recently by the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences shows parents of autistic children want to receive State allowances to ease the financial burden for caring and educating their children.
They also expect the healthcare sector will train more paediatric doctors for autistic children and increase support services for their parents.
While scientists have yet to identify causes and remedies for autism, love sharing and timely assistance are necessary for autistic sufferers to integrate into society.
VNN/VOV/VNS