Viet Nam is a developing country with a population of 83 million people. Although the country has made a significant progress towards improving its economy, the poverty rate in Viet Nam is still relatively high at 20 percent. The ethnic minorities represent the largest portion of all the poor. Although they embody only 14 percent of the entire population, they cover 39 percent of the poor population. Poverty is a severe problem for this population due to the fact that they lack the very basic items for surviving, such as food and clean water. While poverty is the most prominent problem, other conditions such as natural disasters, diseases, and the increase in cost of living are detrimental to the health and survival of the poor people as well.

 Even though the poor have to suffer from such problems, the healthcare system in Viet Nam defers to change and continues to be inadequate. Many people, especially the poor, do not have health insurance nor the access to proper health care because they live too far away from the health clinics. Those fortunate enough to reach a healthcare facility when they are ill may not even receive sufficient care. This is due to the reimbursement procedure that the government has set for healthcare providers for their services. The low compensation does not provide financial stability for high quality healthcare. In addition, the government has no adequate system to monitor the quality of care provided by both the pubic and private facilities. In spite of these problems, there have been some improvements seen through training and interventions. The infant mortality rate is at 18 per 1,000 live births; the mortality rate for children under five years of age is at 24 per 1,000 live births; and the maternal mortality rate is 80 per 100,000 live births. These statistics show that there has been some effort from the government action to improve healthcare for the people. Unfortunately, not everyone benefits from these changes. Among those are the ethnic minorities and the poor, who cannot afford medical services and instead rely on their traditional ways of self-treatment. This poses a serious threat to life when chronic and infectious diseases are introduced.

      Throughout the years, effective ways of controlling infectious diseases has led to the gradual decreasing of their occurrence. However, Viet Nam is facing new types of health concerns including cardio-vascular diseases, cancer, and traffic accidents. These new health problems could be harder and more expensive to treat. Recently, Viet Nam is facing the appearance of severe infectious diseases, such as SARS and avian flu. The number of HIV/AIDS patients is also rising due to an increase in intravenous drug abuse. An enhancement in resources, especially intervention programs, is essential to help prevent these emerging diseases from becoming an epidemic in Viet Nam.