General Information
Donor(s): TB Alliance
Period: 2023 - 2025
Location: Hanoi, Hai Phong city, Ho Chi Minh City, Nghe An, Gia Lai, Dak Lak
Implementer: Health and Social Protection Program
According to the 2022 Global Tuberculosis Report by the World Health Organization (WHO), Vietnam is among the countries with a high burden of TB and drug-resistant TB, with an estimated 8,900 new cases of multidrug resistant or rifampicin-resistant TB (MDR/ RR-TB) annually. For years, patients with MDR-TB and pre/extensively drug-resistant TB had to undergo treatment regimens lasting up to 20 months and involving up to 7 drugs, yet the treatment success rate remained around only 70%.
Starting from January 2024, Vietnam’s Ministry of Health officially adopted the new WHO recommended BPaL/M regimen in its national TB diagnosis, treatment, and prevention guidelines, implemented in 21 provinces and cities. This new regimen uses only 4 oral medications and shortens treatment duration to 6–9 months, with a success rate of up to 90%. Compared to traditional regimens, BPaL/M significantly reduces side effects and treatment burden, enabling patients to recover and reintegrate into daily life more quickly.
With the goal of developing a community led strategy to address barriers to successful treatment and share with donors and partners for the expansion of drug-resistant TB services, especially the rollout of the new regimen in Vietnam, the project focuses on three key areas:
- Enhancing knowledge and skills of members from the Community System to End TB (CSET) and community-based organizations (CBOs) on the new drug resistant TB treatment regimen;
- Facilitating community and stakeholder consultations to identify barriers in accessing TB services, particularly for drug-resistant TB;
- Sharing updates with partners and seeking collaborative solutions to strengthen service access and delivery.
2024 Key Results
In 2024, the project organized an online training session on the short-course BPaL/M regimen, featuring medical experts from the National Tuberculosis Program. A total of 104 CSET and CBO members supporting TB patients participated. This not only served as an opportunity to update knowledge but also created an open dialogue space between healthcare providers and community actors, helping resolve practical challenges in patient support and treatment adherence.
The project also engaged with partners at Hai Phong and Nghe An Lung Hospitals to discuss the current implementation of the BPaL/M regimen. It highlighted the importance of Community-Led Monitoring (CLM) in ensuring service quality, addressing barriers in a timely manner, promoting accountability, and improving the healthcare system’s responsiveness in scaling up the new regimen. Initial efforts have successfully promoted access to and dissemination of information about the new regimen, strengthened community involvement in improving implementation, and accelerated the path toward universal access and better treatment adherence through community-based support.
Focal Person
(Ms.) Nguyen Thi Kim Dung - Health and Social Protection Program Manager
