Vietnamese and foreign experts in assisted reproductive technology(ART) discussed advancements and practical experiences in infertilitydiagnosis and treatment at the second national infertility conferenceheld in HCM City on Aug. 6.

"Vietnam has made significant stridesin infertility treatment in the last 14 years" since the country'sfirst Assisted Reproductive Technology centre was set up at [the HCMCity-based] Tu Du Hospital in 1997, Deputy Minister of Health Dr NguyenViet Tien said.

Diagnosis and treatment of infertility had not developed in Vietnam before 1997.

All14 ART centres in the country now adopted advanced technologies thathelped increase the success rate of in-vitro fertilisation, includingassisted hatching, in-vitro maturation and intracytoplasmic sperminjection.

A draft national population and reproductive health programme for 2011-20 targeted reducing infertility by 50 percent.

Some10-15 percent of the child-bearing population was infertile. Thesterility rate was 40 per cent each for husbands and wives while in 10percent of the cases, both were.

Globally, the infertility rate was 14 to 20 percent.

HoangThi Diem Tuyet, deputy director of Tu Du Hospital, said the IVF successrate in Vietnam was 30-44 percent, the same as the global rate.

So far more than 10,000 IVF babies had been born in the country, including nearly 4,100 at Tu Du Hospital, she said.

Shecalled on the Ministry of Health to use information technology toimprove management of data at ART centres, including that of egg andsperm donations.

They were now being managed individually byvarious centres, she said. Since they did not share information, therewas a high risk of children born from the eggs or sperms of the samedonor marrying each other, she warned./.