The key to improving population quality.

Population quality is a direct determinant of future human resource quality. Recognizing this, the provincial health sector has intensified programs for screening, diagnosing, and treating prenatal and neonatal diseases, considering this a key solution to improving the quality of the gene pool.

Medical staff at the Provincial General Hospital monitor the health of newborns. Photo: Duong Chung

In the first five months of the year, the provincial health sector conducted prenatal screening for more than 5,200 pregnant women, of which over 4,700 cases were screened using advanced testing techniques such as dried blood samples and serum samples.

The tests focus on early detection of fetal abnormalities such as Down syndrome, Edward syndrome, Patau syndrome, thalassemia, and other chromosomal abnormalities. Early detection has helped many high-risk pregnant women receive appropriate diagnosis, counseling, and treatment, facilitating fetal health care from within the womb.

Newborn screening has also yielded many positive results. In the first five months of the year, more than 5,100 newborns in the province were screened, reaching over 96% of the total number of live births in the area.

Screening tests focus on detecting five common congenital diseases that can be effectively treated if detected early: congenital hypothyroidism, G6PD deficiency, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, congenital hearing loss, and congenital heart disease.

The screening results identified four high-risk newborns, who were promptly referred for treatment and ensured long-term monitoring. This is a significant step forward in efforts to reduce disability and intellectual impairment caused by congenital diseases that go undetected.

Prenatal and newborn screening is not only being implemented at provincial and district-level health facilities, but has also been expanded to the commune level. Since the beginning of the year, the provincial health sector has organized 37 training courses for nearly 3,000 specialized health workers and health station heads on counseling skills, heel prick blood sampling techniques, ultrasound, and genetic counseling to enhance the capacity of health workers at the commune level.

At the same time, the provincial health sector is also focusing on investing in equipment for district-level medical facilities, contributing to expanding the scope of screening and ensuring the quality of testing.

In addition, the pre-marital health check-up program – a crucial pillar of population quality improvement efforts – has also achieved encouraging results. In the first five months of the year, the provincial health sector organized pre-marital counseling and health check-ups for over 1,400 young couples, accounting for more than 90% of couples registering for marriage.

This allows for early detection of genetic risks and diseases affecting fertility and children's health, helping couples better prepare physically and psychologically for married life.

Despite achieving many positive results, prenatal and neonatal screening, diagnosis, and treatment still face numerous challenges, such as limited funding; and some people, especially in remote areas, do not yet have sufficient interest in or access to high-quality healthcare services.

Notably, awareness of the role of population work in the new situation remains uneven across all levels of government and among some segments of the population, with the prevailing patriarchal mindset affecting the effectiveness of population policy implementation.

To strengthen prenatal and neonatal screening, the provincial health sector proposes that the Central Government and the Ministry of Health continue to pay attention to and increase resources for the locality in implementing screening activities and providing free testing support for vulnerable groups; while also promoting communication and education to raise community awareness.

In particular, it is necessary to promptly enact a Population Law to create a legal framework, helping localities to comprehensively implement population policies and reproductive health care, contributing to improving the quality of the province's population and human resources in the future.

Minh Nguyet

Source: http://baovinhphuc.com.vn/Multimedia/Images/Id/129822/Chia-khoa-nang-cao-chat-luong-dan-so