Multidimensional medical forum on respiratory diseases

GSK joined hands with medical associations to hold a multidimensional medical forum in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City

The forum is also an opportunity for top-notch experts in the field of respiratory diseases, pediatrics, microbiology clinical pharmacology, ENT, and preventive medicine to discuss the topic.

Speaking at the forum, Professor Tran Dac Phu, head of the Preventive Medicine Department at the Ministry of Health, asserted that, “In the Industry 4.0 era, the healthcare sector has made transformative steps, adapting to new medical trends in order to meet higher public expectations of healthcare quality. We have obtained remarkable progress in raising healthcare awareness among citizens, however, a majority of Vietnamese people still prefer self-diagnosis and self-treatment using Google – they would rather buy medicine without prescription and do not comply with doctors’ prescriptions. To curb this problem, a tighter, more harmonious collaboration between treatment and prevention is crucial to deliver better public healthcare and health protection.”

At the forum, experts shared experiences and discussed the importance of combining prevention and treatment in the comprehensive management of respiratory diseases in adults and children amidst the complexity of antibiotic resistance, the reoccurrence of several epidemics in children, and the increasing rate of chronic diseases like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Experts pointed out the fact that alarming environmental pollution, unhealthy diet and lifestyle, and a lack of physical exercise are responsible for Vietnamese people’s susceptibility to diseases, especially respiratory diseases. Vietnamese people tend to only visit doctors when their situation gets worse and this makes treatment more difficult.

In children, the burden of disease is substantial at age 0-2. At this age, most children are hospitalised for acute respiratory diseases. Their immature immune systems are vulnerable to bacterial attacks, which results in serious complications and even mortality.

To cope with these challenges, experts suggest that there needs to be consensus among health workers across medical fields on the proper prescription and the use of antibiotics to minimise antibiotic resistance.

The healthcare sector needs to encourage early immunisation for vaccine-preventable diseases to protect children from common and dangerous respiratory diseases like whooping cough, pneumococcal pneumonia, and other infectious diseases.

The forum is co-organised by Vietnam’s medical associations and GSK – one of the world-leading science-based healthcare and pharmaceutical companies. This event also marks GSK’s 25th year on its journey to accompany the development of Vietnam’s healthcare sector.

Dan Millard, chief representative of GSK Vietnam, said, “We are proud to be part of the development of Vietnam’s healthcare sector over the past 25 years. As a science-led global healthcare company that researches and develops pharmaceuticals and vaccines, GSK puts patients at the centre of everything we do. We understand that patients count on health professionals to use the most appropriate and advanced medicines in treatment so that their health can be improved and their life gets better.”

“Working closely with our strategic partners, we exert our utmost efforts to provide optimised solutions for exsisting medical challenges, such as reducing antimicrobial resistance, expanding immunisation coverage, managing respiratory diseases, and enabling everyone to access fundamental healthcare,“ he said.