HCMC – To support Vietnam’s efforts to fight Covid-19, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has provided a care package worth VND12 billion (60 million yen) to Cho Ray Hospital in HCMC and another one worth roughly VND4 billion (20 million yen) to six provincial centers of disease control.
On June 3, the first part of the package, including 2,000 copies of the Nosocomial Infection Control Manual, was handed over to Cho Ray Hospital by the JICA Vietnam Office. The hospital’s Department of Infection Control developed the manual with technical inputs from JICA experts.
The manual is expected to improve infection control activities in 21 provincial hospitals in the southern region, which are under the guidance and support of Cho Ray Hospital, and the Cho Ray Vietnam-Japan Friendship Hospital, which will be established in the future.
JICA has been supporting the hospital to strengthen patient safety management, adopt a multi-professional approach and deal with infection control through the project for “Improvement of Hospital Management Competency”, which targets patient-oriented and high-quality medical services. The support is also aimed at improving the hospital’s management capabilities.
In August 2019, to strengthen the nosocomial infection control capacity at Cho Ray Hospital, the project provided training to the hospital’s doctors and nurses on the right usage of personal protective equipment.
Moreover, just before the first confirmed Covid-19 patient was admitted to Cho Ray Hospital early this year, JICA experts had provided materials and conducted training sessions on nosocomial infection control at the hospital.
In the past, Vietnam has been exposed to a variety of infectious diseases and, as such, since 2006, JICA has been supporting the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology and the HCMC Pasteur Institute with the installation and strengthening of biosafety level-three laboratories that enable the safe handling of highly hazardous pathogens.
JICA has also been supporting these institutes to strengthen their capacities over laboratory diagnoses for infectious pathogens.
Moreover, JICA experts are working with the institutes to strengthen the examination capabilities and collaboration network of the provincial centers of disease control in Vietnam as part of the ongoing project for “Capacity Development for Medical Laboratory Network on Biosafety and Examination of Highly Hazardous Infectious Pathogens”.
“JICA, under the leadership of the Government of Japan, will continue to support the Government of Vietnam in increasing its preparedness to fight Covid-19,” the agency said in a statement.
By Trang Nguyen
