Proposing a policy to ensure nutrition for all pregnant women

On October 23, National Assembly deputies listened to Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan present the draft Law on Disease Prevention.

National Assembly session on October 23. Photo: QUANG PHUC

According to the Minister of Health , the 2007 Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases has contributed to controlling epidemics. However, after more than 17 years, the law has revealed limitations, inadequacies and problems.

Therefore, the construction of the new law aims to perfect the legal basis for disease prevention; improve the physical and mental health, stature, longevity, and quality of life of Vietnamese people through effective control of diseases and risk factors.

The draft law stipulates decentralization to the Minister of Health to prescribe criteria for classifying disease groups, criteria for determining epidemics, and criteria for epidemics beyond the government's response capacity; adds regulations on classifying epidemic levels, ensuring no overlap with the Law on Civil Defense.

New additional content groups compared to current regulations such as prevention and control of non-communicable diseases; ensuring nutrition in disease prevention (nutrition for some target groups: pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and children under 24 months old, children, school-age children, workers and the elderly)...

According to the draft, the Disease Prevention Fund is a non-budget state financial fund with legal status, established by the Prime Minister: the state budget supports the charter capital, the initial charter capital from the entire remaining budget of the Tobacco Harm Prevention Fund until June 30, 2026; a mandatory contribution of 2% on the special consumption tax price of tobacco production and import establishments; sponsorship, voluntary contributions; non-refundable aid; other legal sources of revenue. The Government regulates the organization, operation, management and use of the fund.

Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan presented the draft law proposal on the morning of October 23.

Chairman of the Committee for Culture and Society Nguyen Dac Vinh presented a report examining the draft law, proposing to continue reviewing and researching the full institutionalization of the Party's viewpoints on public health care; researching and supplementing appropriate regulations on the prevention and control of infectious diseases, mental health disorders, and nutrition in disease prevention.

Regarding the prevention of mental health disorders, the committee proposed to study and supplement regulations to clarify subjects at high risk of mental health disorders; measures to prevent mental health disorders and funding sources for these activities.

The Committee proposed to study and supplement regulations related to mental health, prevention and control of mental disorders for students and people with psychological trauma after natural disasters.

Regarding the nutrition policy for pregnant women and children with acute malnutrition and stunting, the majority of opinions believe that it is necessary to have regulations applicable to all pregnant women in need of micronutrient supplementation and children with acute malnutrition and stunting, regardless of region or area, to ensure the policy of increasing birth rate, improving population quality and fairness.

LAM NGUYEN

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/de-xuat-chinh-sach-bao-dam-dinh-duong-cho-moi-phu-nu-co-thai-post819487.html