Preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Vietnam: an assessment of progress and future directions.

Preliminary to the development a new program supporting perinatal HIV prevention, this assessment was conducted to evaluate Vietnam's national prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) program by estimating HIV prevalence among prenatal women and analyzing the healthcare system capacity to deliver services. In 2002-03, a technical team reviewed existing national and local surveillance and program data and conducted on-site interviews and observations at maternal-child health (MCH) programs in the seven provinces with highest HIV rates. The team found that despite high (85%) prenatal service utilization and widespread availability of HIV testing and dissemination of prevention protocols, few HIV-infected mothers were identified in time to allow effective perinatal HIV prevention. Program deficits clustered around the general areas of provider misunderstanding of occupational HIV risk and MTCT, impractical PMTCT policies, and practices hampering effective use of prevention and treatment protocols. Existing problems were significant but modifiable, and will require implementation of practical and appropriate guidelines, enhanced clinical and laboratory capacity, and continued program management and monitoring.

Health status and working environment with visual display terminal users

Health status and working environment with visual display terminal users. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between health status (musculoskeletal problems and eyes discomfort) and the condition of work with visual display terminal (VDT). It was carried out using a self-administered questionnaire with two groups:VDT-user (group A:103 workers) and non. VDT user (group B:114 workers). Result: The temperature, humidity, air velocity in working room were good. The noise was higher in comparision with standard of Vietnam. The prevelences of musculoskeletal complaints in various body parts were neck (46.6%), low back (45.63%) shoulder (74.75%), wrist (57.28%). Risk of musculoskeletal complaints were more related to unfavorable working postures. Hand and wrist problems were more affected by repetitive movements. Prevalence of visual complaints was tiredness of eyes: 80.85%, eyes-ache 75.23%

Working environment and health among tunnel construction workers working in Central Region from 2001 to 2003

A study of working environment and health on 600 tunnel construction workers working in Central Region from 2001 to 2003 showed that: the working environment at the construction site was severely polluted with more than 60% of measured experiment samples were higher than the standard level. The deeper the tunnel is, the more severe the pollution is. The temperature, humidity, toxic gases (CO, CO2, and NO2), noise and dust tend to increase. The circulation speed of air, illumination power and level of O2 tend to decrease. The health of workers had a decrease tendency in the three year period. The common diseases are tooth, jaw and face diseases, ear, nose and throat diseases, circulation disease, eye diseases and eye related problems. The rate of work related accident reduced, mortality rate was 0.99%; the main causes leading to accidents at work were rock fall, fall, and mechanical devices; in work related accidents, the rate of soft tissue injury was high