The Directorate of Preventive Medicine against HIV/AIDS reports that 10 percent of youth under 16 years of age have trachoma in eight Vietnamese provinces, six in the north and two in the south. Deputy director Nguyen Huy Nga announced the news at a conference of the Ministry of Health on preventing and fighting trachoma, a contagious disease of the eyes which can lead to blindness.

In the surveyed provinces, 7 to 12 percent children under 16 have trachoma, while 1.2 to 4.1 percent adults above 35 are afflicted with the disease. The MoH is spending US 15.5 million to wipe out the disease in seven northern provinces by 2010.