U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm Visits Vietnam and Meets with Government of Vietnam Partners

HANOI, U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Vietnam — Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was in Vietnam this week to meet with Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Vietnam and CDC Southeast Asia Regional Office staff, U.S. Embassy officials, and partners from the Government of Vietnam to highlight the importance of the U.S.-Vietnam health partnership.

HHS has robust health collaboration with Vietnam both bilaterally and multilaterally through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA). Since normalization of relations in 1995, the U.S. government has contributed over USD $1.15 billion in bilateral health programs in Vietnam. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an agency of HHS, established a country office in Vietnam in 1998 to implement high-quality, sustainable health systems that lead to long term impact for the country. In 2021, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris launched the U.S. CDC Southeast Asia Regional Office in Hanoi to advance regional global health security.

U.S. CDC in Vietnam is the primary partnering agency for Vietnam’s Ministry of Health (MOH), providing technical expertise to support and scale up programs targeting priority diseases including HIV, tuberculosis, and influenza. In addition, U.S. CDC in Vietnam partners closely with MOH to strengthen laboratory and surveillance systems, develop and utilize emergency operations centers, prevent antimicrobial resistance and infections in healthcare settings, prevent zoonotic and vaccine-preventable diseases in the community, support workforce development for the 21st century, and particularly recently, support outbreak response. In 2023, U.S. CDC will mark 25 years of bilateral health cooperation.

In addition, the Southeast Asia Regional Office strengthens the U.S. CDC’s ability to meet its mission of protecting people in America and throughout Southeast Asia by responding more rapidly to health threats wherever they occur and building key relationships to address shared health priorities. Coordinating with country offices in the region, the Southeast Asia Regional Office is focused on building core public health capacities and responding to public health threats with ministry counterparts and regional partners.

HHS supports further public health strengthening in Vietnam through the agencies of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), including extramural research collaboration with institutions in Vietnam focused on HIV, tuberculosis, and other bacterial, fungal, and viral infections, and development of a locally manufactured influenza vaccine, respectively.

HHS Deputy Secretary Palm, among others, visited Hanoi this week to reaffirm the importance of U.S.-Vietnam health cooperation and to express the U.S. desire to acknowledge Vietnam as an important health partner multilaterally through ASEAN. The Deputy Secretary’s visit to Vietnam followed a trip to Indonesia for the G20 Ministerial.

“I’m grateful for this opportunity to visit Vietnam to see first-hand the strength of the health partnership between the United States and Vietnam and discuss Vietnam’s role as a leader in advancing regional health security. We know that our health is integrally related to that of the health of others around the world. The United States is proud of our longstanding partnership with the Government of Vietnam, which serves as a model of bilateral cooperation in addressing shared health priorities,” said Deputy Secretary Palm.