After finishing Round 3 (2005-2008) effectively in 23 provinces, the Vietnam Global Fund Malaria Project (2009-2013) continues Round 7 in these provinces plus 6 additional ones, including Thua Thien-Hue (TT-H) province. Round 7 aims "to strengthen the community-based malaria control activities in high-risk population, and to enhance the capability and sustainability of the National Malaria Control Programme". This will help TT-H to reach the target of counting malaria out of the community in the future.
The project is deployed in two districts of A Luoi and Nam Dong which are categorised as moderate and high endemicity of malaria according to the stratification of interventional malaria epidemiology with 32 communes and towns; 199 villages; 13,841 households and 66,022 people. A Luoi is a mountainous district, located on the 85-kilometre borderline with Xaravan and Xekong province (Lao PDR). The Hochiminh Highway runs through the district, connecting Dakrong district (Quang Tri province) in the north and Tay Giang district (Quang Nam province) in the South. Although having no borderline with Lao PDR, Nam Dong district is adjacent to A Luoi district and the highly endemic area of Quang Nam province. Therefore, the traffic makes it unaccessible to these districts, thus worsening malaria situation. The area under VGF project is home to various ethnic minorities such as Ta Oi, Ka Tu, Pa Ko, Pa Hy, Van Kieu, Tay, Muong and Nung. In A Luoi district, the ethnic minorities make up 80% of the population; and in Nam Dong district, this number is 40%. Most of the people live and work in farms, plantations and plot huts, which drives them at high risk of malaria infection.
Under the guidance of central project management unit (CPMU), the provincial project management unit (PMU) is established with 5 members led by Dr. Nguyen Dung, Ph.D., Head of TT-H provincial health service. Then they continue to establish district project management units, composed of 3 members. After being estabilished, the PMUs of province and districts are guided and trained on the project contents. Because the project has just been carried out in the province, TT-H needs more help and guidelines from CPMU and PMU of IMPE Quy Nhon.
The plan of VGF Malaria Project for 2009 in TT-H was approved with a total budget of 2,838,640,949 VND, with four basic targets including: increase the accessibility and utilisation of malaria control measures effectively; improve the quality of diagnosis and treatment, reinforce the surveillance and monitoring of malaria outbreaks; and enhance the capability of the National Malaria Control Programme.
Each of the targets is classified into allocated budgets suitable to guarantee the given work. on the annual planned items, the localities makes plans for every quarter. on June 4,2009, the CPMU of VGF Malaria Project will hold the workshop on reviewing activities in Hue city, TT-H province to evaluate results of Round 3 Project (2005-2008), and delpoying the plan for Round 7 Project (2009-2013) with the aim of "strengthening the community-based malaria control activities in high-risk population, and enhancing the capability and sustainability of the National Malaria Control Programme." Participating in the workshop are the PMUs of 29 provinces, including 6 new provinces. It is expected that the Round 7 Project will be carried out more effectively and finish 4 main targets, which comes to change the strategy "Malaria Control" into "Malaria Elimination".