ANN/VEIT NAM NEWS – Hung Vuong Hospital in Ho Chi Minh (HCM) City opened the country’s largest human milk bank on Saturday.
Set up at a cost of nearly VND6 billion (USD256,000), it can pasteurise more than 62 litres of milk a day, the director of the hospital Hoang Thi Diem Tuyet said.
It is part of efforts to reduce infant mortality, which remains high in Vietnam, she said.
It can provide breast milk to premature and sick babies whose mothers could not produce enough milk for them, she said.
Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son said that at present, the infant mortality rate in Vietnam is still high, accounting for 70-80 per cent of all deaths in children under the age of one.
Studies have shown that among the solutions to reduce infant mortality, breast milk is the most important and has the greatest potential to impact child survival.
It is the second in HCM City and fourth in Vietnam.
