HCM City health conference focuses on maternal deaths

The annual two-day event, titled the Viet Nam - France - Asia-Pacific Conference o­n Reproductive Health, was organised by Tu Du Obstetrics and Gynae-cology Hospital with the co-operation of the HCM City of Society Reproductive Medicine and National College for Obstetrics and Gynaecology of France.

At the international conference, the ninth of its kind, Vietnamese doctors and experts from France, Australia, the US, Great Britain, Sweden, Hong Kong, Singapore and Brazil will present 63 reports o­n the latest techniques and research in the field.

Of the reports, 22 will be presented by Vietnamese doctors and the others by leading foreign experts. The discussion will focus o­n obstetrics, infertility, endoscopic surgery and cancer.

Plastic surgery

Beside the topics that are discussed every year at the conference, new surgical techniques and medical information, especially o­n plastic surgery, will be presented during three seminars as well.

Nguyen Duy Khe, deputy head of the Ministry of Health’s Reproductive Health Department, said the conference helped local doctors learn the latest information and treatment methods being used around the world.

One of the major objectives of the medical community represented at the conference is to reduce the rates of maternal deaths.

Khe said infant and maternal mortality rates had declined substantially in recent years, indicating that health care in mountainous and rural areas had improved.

The annual conference was held for the first time in 2000, with o­nly 400 participants, but the number has increased year by year, with the eighth conference last year attracting 1,650 experts and doctors.