US-based NGO, East Meets West (EMW) Foundation, broke ground Thursday on a new building for the oncology and tropical diseases medicine departments at Da Nang Hospital.

The US$3.5 million project, to build and equip the facility, is funded by Atlantic Philanthropies (AP) and implemented by EMW as a humanitarian gift to the people of Da Nang City, according to an EMW statement.

EMW said construction is slated for completion by October 2009.

The tropical medicine department will care for patients suffering from avian influenza and other diseases such as SARS, viral hepatitis and HIV/AIDS.

The oncology department will house 60-80 beds for chemotherapy services and rooms for radiotherapy equipment.

EMW aims to “assist Da Nang Hospital to become the center of excellence in oncology, tropical medicine, and dissemination of knowledge and practice – to raise standards of health in central Vietnam to a higher level than other Southeast Asian countries,” EMW’s country director, Mark Conroy, said.

Since 1998, the partnership between AP and EMW has provided health and higher education infrastructure in several Vietnamese

Source: Thanh Nien