Thua Thien-Hue (VNA) – As many as 56 children with genetic facial defects are receivingmedical checkups and surgical operations during a programme held in the centralprovince of Thua Thien-Hue from July 15 to 20.

The programme isarranged by a delegation of experts from the Republic of Korea’s (RoK) ChonbukNational University, and Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital (HueUMP). It provides free oral and maxillofacial surgeries for 30 children out ofthe kids.

On this occasion,doctors offer medical examinations for patients who received surgeries duringlast year’s programme. Following the surgeries, the young patients receivetreatment at a centre for phonetic placement therapy at the hospital.

Dr Tran Tan Tai, vicehead of the Faculty of Odonto-Stomatology at the Hue UMP, said Prof. ShinHyo-keun of the Chonbuk National University and doctors and medical studentsfrom the RoK started to provide operations for 38 patients in 2006.

From then on, the RoKdelegation arranges annual examinations and surgeries for patients at the HueUMP, he noted.

To date, the programmehas treated nearly 450 children with facial deformity in Vietnam’s centralregion, with about 350 of them receiving free cleft lip surgeries. Theprogramme also offers opportunities for doctors of Vietnam and the RoK to sharetheir experiences and improve their skills, he added.

In addition, the twouniversities have forged cooperation in many areas, including training andscientific research, grants for medical students, and admission of Hue UMP’strainees to the RoK university, along with the establishment of a phoneticplacement therapy centre for young patients, the first of its kind in thecentral and Central Highland regions.-VNA