Text message campaign to support TB patients launched

A text message campaign to support Tuberculosis (TB) patients was launched on March 22 by the National Lung Hospital, the National Programme against Tuberculosis and the Patients Support Foundation to End Tuberculosis (PASTB) and the National Humanitarian Portal 1400.

Accordingly, from 00:00 on March 22 to 24:00 on May 21, mobile service subscribers can text TB to 1402 to contribute VND20,000 (US$0.87) to the fund.

Each message will provide funds to help TB patients overcome the disease and reduce infection risks in the community.

Ending TB would mean saving 11,000 lives each year and ease the worry of infection for hundreds of thousands of people.

At present, more than 20,000 TB patients in Vietnam do not have health insurance cards yet. For health insurance card holders from poor and near-poor households, treatment fees are also a problem.

In 2020, Vietnam ranked 11th among the 30 countries that account for nearly 90% of the world’s TB burden. It is also one of the most common communicable diseases in the country.

Each year, it is estimated that 170,000 people become sick from TB in Vietnam, but only around 100,000 are accounted for in the National TB system, leaving around 50,000 community TB cases undiagnosed, and the remaining 20,000 diagnosed but not reported.

As of late December 2020, the PASTB, set up on March 16, 2018, had supported 2,560 patients, with the total amount of over VND5.7 billion (US$247,100).