In Kok Sai village in Hadsayfong district, Madam Kay [name changed for privacy] received a knock on her door one morning. Initially apprehensive, her concerns quickly eased when she saw the familiar faces of her village health volunteers who were there to conduct a free mobile clinic with health care workers from the district hospital and health center.
The nurses measured Madam Kay’s blood pressure and blood glucose levels, and found she had both hypertension and diabetes, as did many of her neighbors who were screened. The team offered advice on how to manage these conditions, including lifestyle changes and taking prescribed medication.
While Madam Kay occasionally felt unwell, she hadn’t realized that she had any diseases, let alone how to control them and prevent further complications. “Now that I know I have these conditions, I will pay more attention to my health and visit the health center regularly for follow-ups,” she said. “These diseases are life-threatening, so I must take the necessary steps to improve my health.”
This visit was just one of nearly 400 home visits conducted by the Hadsayfong mobile clinic team from May-June 2025 in the district, located in Lao People’s Democratic Republic’s Vientiane Capital region. Through these visits, health care workers identified 158 cases of hypertension and 139 cases of diabetes. The team found that many people were unaware of their health conditions and faced financial barriers to accessing treatment. The Hadsayfong team is hopeful that they can continue to provide care and are working to establish a fund to cover the cost of medicines and supplies for these patients.
Lao PDR faces health care challenges such as limited resources, underdeveloped public health infrastructure and inadequacies in health care services at provincial and district levels. There are currently few to no basic screening services for noncommunicable diseases that people can access easily, and the team found that many people they visited were not well informed about NCDs and their risk factors. As a result, many cases are identified at a later stage when patients already experience symptoms.
The mobile clinics are one of the many activities created to advance NCD prevention, detection and management under the NCD project, which Vital Strategies recently concluded in Lao PDR. Powered by Sanofi’s Global Health Unit for sustainable impact, the project has had significant progress across three main areas:
- Workforce Training: Led by the Department of Health Care and Rehabilitation and Department of Hygiene and Health Promotion at the Ministry of Health, the team conducted eight sessions where a total of 133 health care workers and 62 community health volunteers were trained on the Lao NCD management guidelines. Most of these health workers were either from district hospitals or health centers, representing the frontline of the health system.
- Mass Community Screenings: Some of the trained health workers went on to conduct community health screening for over 4,000 residents from Hadsayfong and Sisatanak districts of Vientiane Capital—the first time that proactive and systematic health screening for NCDs has been conducted in Lao PDR. Analysis of the results showed that the residents who lived closer to the urban center had poorer health outcomes and were more likely to indulge in risk factors such as smoking and using alcohol.
- Public and Stakeholder Engagement: To highlight understanding of NCDs and their risk factors among stakeholders and the public, the project carried out over 20 public events held across Vientiane Capital over the course of the 18-month project, including a two-day symposium featuring international NCD experts and a one-day national workshop involving health officials from all 17 provinces of Lao PDR.
Key findings from the NCD screening
- 1 in 3 participants had hypertension
- 1 in 2 participants were either diabetic or pre-diabetic
- 2 in 3 participants were either overweight or obese
- Men were far more likely to smoke and consume alcohol
The project also enhanced technical capacity of health workers, and created a team of champions within the Ministry of Health to tackle this critical health issue. NCDs are the leading cause of death globally, and it is no different in Lao PDR, where they are responsible for at least 60% of all deaths. Moving forward, continued support will be needed for NCD work in Lao PDR, including workforce training in additional provinces, improving patient follow-up and referral, enhancing support for multi-sectoral collaboration, addressing policies and interventions around specific risk factors, and generating sustainable NCD financing.