Background The COVID-19 pandemic has hit all corners of the world, challenging governments to act promptly in controlling the spread of the pandemic. Due to limited resources and inferior technological capacities, developing countries including Vietnam have faced many challenges in combating the pandemic. Since the first cases were detected on 23 January 2020, Vietnam has undergone a 3-month fierce battle to control the outbreak with stringent measures from the government to mitigate the adverse impacts. In this study, we aim to give insights into the Vietnamese government’s progress during the first three months of the outbreak. Additionally, we relatively compare Vietnam’s response with that of other Southeast Asia countries to deliver a clear and comprehensive view on disease control strategies. Methods The data on the number of COVID-19 confirmed and recovered cases in Vietnam was obtained from the Dashboard for COVID-19 statistics of the Ministry of Health ( https://ncov.vncdc.gov.vn/ ). The review on Vietnam’s country-level responses was conducted by searching for relevant government documents issued on the online database ‘Vietnam Laws Repository’ ( https://thuvienphapluat.vn/en/index.aspx ), with the grey literature on Google and relevant official websites. A stringency index of government policies and the countries’ respective numbers of confirmed cases of nine Southeast Asian countries were adapted from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker ( https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/research/research-projects/coronavirus-government-response-tracker ). All data was updated as of 24 April 2020. Results Preliminary positive results have been achieved given that the nation confirmed no new community-transmitted cases since 16 April and zero COVID-19 – related deaths throughout the 3-month pandemic period. To date, the pandemic has been successfully controlled thanks to the Vietnamese government’s prompt, proactive and decisive responses including mobilization of the health care systems, security forces, economic policies, along with a creative and effective communication campaign corresponding with crucial milestones of the epidemic’s progression. Conclusions Vietnam could be one of the role models in pandemic control for low-resource settings. As the pandemic is still ongoing in an unpredictable trajectory, disease control measures should continue to be put in place in the foreseeable short term.

Background Overweight and obesity is a severe global health issue in both developed and developing nations. This study aims to estimate the national prevalence of overweight and obesity among school-aged children in Vietnam. Method We conducted a national cross-sectional study on 2788 children aged from 11-14 years old from September to November 2018. We applied the WHO 2007 and IOTF criteria to estimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity among participants. Poison regression analysis with cluster sampling adjustment was employed to assess associated factors with obesity and overweight. Metadata on sociodemographic characteristics, physical measurements, and lifestyle behaviors were also extracted to investigate these factors in association with overweight and obesity prevalence. Results The prevalences of overweight and obesity in Vietnamese children were 17.4% and 8.6%, respectively by WHO Z-score criteria, and 17.1% and 5.4%, according to the IOTF reference. Using WHO Z-score yielded a higher prevalence of obesity than the IOTF and CDC criteria of all ages and both sexes. The proportions of overweight and obesity were substantially higher among boys than girls across ages. Parental BMI was shown to be a significant factor associated with overweight/obesity status in both girls and boys. Only for boys, age (PR = 0.83, 95% CI 0.76-0.90) and belonging to ethnic minorities (PR = 0.43, 95% CI 0.24-0.76) were significant risk factors for overweight/obesity.

SUMMARY:Arterial perforation is a feared complication of acute stroke intervention. A high index of suspicion is important to recognize this complication and tailor patient management to prevent further deterioration in clinical outcome. This report describes the endovascular management of microcatheter arterial perforation in a 66-year-old woman with an acute left middle cerebral artery stroke. The microcatheter was retained in the patient to seal the perforated site, resulting in good outcome at 3-month follow-up.

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