Socioeconomic and Demographic Characteristics

Besides geographical features, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics are determining factors that should be considered to evaluate the possibility of eliminating malaria. Specifically, the poverty rate and provision of healthcare infrastructure illustrate the capacity of the Mekong Delta to adopt new malaria prevention and control guidelines, whereas rates of immigration and economic development are indicators of the region’s susceptibility to importation of cases and new vector species. These factors directly explain why malaria is currently a health burden to isolated, mountainous, and forested areas as these are often remote, inadequately facilitated, and home to low-educational and poor communities (Manh et al., 2011; Hewitt et al., 2013).

Several socioeconomic and demographic indicators favor an optimistic outlook regarding malaria transmission in the Mekong Delta. It ranks second of six regions of Vietnam for the proportion of communes with national-standardized clinics, indicating that vulnerable populations residing in the Mekong Delta can access good quality healthcare and updated interventions more conveniently (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Commune clinic coverage and quality in different regions of Vietnam in 2019. Secondary analysis of data from “The findings of a survey conducted in 2019 to collect information on the socioeconomic status of 53 ethnic minorities”, Ethnic Committee and General Statistics Office, 2020, Statistical Publisher, p. 119. Values expressed as percentages.

The proportion of poor, near-poor and subsidized ethnic households in this region, an index that is strongly associated with malaria incidence, is also among the three lowest in Vietnam (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Poverty situation of ethnic minority households in different regions of Vietnam in 2018. Secondary analysis of data from “The findings of a survey conducted in 2019 to collect information on the socioeconomic status of 53 ethnic minorities”, Ethnic Committee and General Statistics Office, 2020, Statistical Publisher, p. 131. Values expressed as percentages.

In relation to timeliness of support for vulnerable groups in the Mekong Delta, transportation infrastructure promises easier access than in most regions as more than half of roads from ethnic villages to the central area are made of asphalt, with gravel roads only comprising 0.6% (Figure 3). Finally, the current continuous negative immigration rate indicates a lower risk of importing cases and new vectors of malaria (General Statistics Office of Vietnam, 2023). However, the rapid economic development of the Mekong Delta may reverse this trend by attracting short-term laborers and seasonal workers to the region (Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 2023). This unregulated influx is a risk factor for reintroducing the disease (Kitvatanachai et al., 2003; Van Nam et al., 2005; Cui et al., 2018).

Figure 3. Road types to ethnic villages in different regions of Vietnam in 2019. Secondary analysis of data from “The findings of a survey conducted in 2019 to collect information on the socioeconomic status of 53 ethnic minorities”, Ethnic Committee and General Statistics Office, 2020, Statistical Publisher, p. 113. Values expressed as percentages.

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

MALARIA IN THE MEKONG DELTA Copyright © 2024 by VinUniversity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book