30 million USD for Vietnam’s fight against malaria

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has pledged to grant nearly 30 million USD to Vietnam ‘s endeavour to fight malaria. The Vietnamese side will contribute over 853,000 USD to the fund which aims to raise access to and use of methods to prevent malarial infection, provide medical equipment and train health care officials. The agreement on the project on anti-malaria in Vietnam in the 2009-2013 period (the 7 th round) was presented to Vietnam in Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province on October 15 by the Funds’s representative Dr. Elma Vinh Thomas. The anti-malaria project will be implemented in 152 districts of 29 provinces in Vietnam including 10 northern provinces , 14 central and central highland provinces and 5 southern provinces. In these districts, the number of malaria cases account for between 70 and 79 per cent of the country’s total. The managing board of the central project said that thanks to the 3rd round of the anti-malaria project, the instances of malaria in Vietnam dropped sharply from 299,000 cases of malaria with 148 deaths in 2000, down to just 10,910 cases with 20 deaths in 2007. The project will commence in early 2009.