"When I found out I had tuberculosis I was very worried,” said Menh, a 33-year-old construction worker from Tay Ninh province in southeast Vietnam. “But health care workers supported me and helped me with prevention measures, so that I could continue working to support my family.” 

Tay Ninh has high rates of tuberculosis, a disease that is spread through the air and which can be deadly if gone untreated. Menh likely contracted it from his brother who, at the time, was undergoing treatment. This concerned Menh who did not want his wife or children to become infected. 

Vietnam is the 10th highest burden tuberculosis country in the world with one of the lowest treatment coverage rates in the Asia region. Each year, it is estimated that 170,000 people are infected, but less than 60% receive treatment. USAID partners with the Government of Vietnam in the ambitious effort to end tuberculosis by 2030 through robust detection, treatment, and prevention.

From May to June 2022, USAID collaborated with Vietnam’s National Tuberculosis Program on a 10-day community tuberculosis screening campaign in Tay Ninh. USAID supports an innovative strategy called Double X, which combines chest X-rays and GeneXpert, a rapid bacterial test, to diagnose active and latent tuberculosis infections. 

Even though Menh had no symptoms, he and his family were invited to be screened at a mobile testing van. They each had a chest X-ray which rapidly scanned for signs of tuberculosis using artificial intelligence software. Mehn’s X-ray revealed signs of infection and a sputum sample was taken for GeneXpert testing. Menh’s result came back positive for pulmonary tuberculosis and he was immediately enrolled in a 6-month tuberculosis treatment regimen, while his wife and children started preventative tuberculosis treatment.   

Since 2020, USAID has partnered with Vietnam to deploy the highly effective Double X diagnostic strategy. Studies have shown that treating both active and latent cases is necessary to sustain a decline in infections. USAID is now working with the National Tuberculosis Program, in collaboration with the Global Fund, to scale up the Double X strategy nationwide in order to detect and treat cases of tuberculosis, improve preventative measures, and to reduce transmission.

Menh visits the commune health station weekly to refill his prescription and record his daily treatment. "I was lucky because I participated in the screening campaign to detect this dangerous, infectious disease early. Thanks to timely and active treatment, my health has improved significantly,” said Menh. His advice for others? "Allow the health workers to guide you, and do not hesitate to take tuberculosis medicine as soon as possible. Otherwise, the disease can worsen, and the treatment process will be more challenging.”