Background Injury surveillance system was set up in 2005 in Vietnam.

Objectives To assess injury burden in Vietnam.

Design and Subjects Periodic injury reports of 63 provinces/cities, road traffic injury (RTI) reports of 100 central and provincial hospitals, injury report of different ministries.

Results In comparison to 6 months of 2008, in 6 months of 2009 injury cases increased 26.112 cases, death cases reduced by 0.3%. The 20–60 group had the highest proportions of injury morbidity and mortality (62.9% and 70.8%). Injury morbidity and mortality were higher among male than female. Road traffic accident was the leading cause of injury morbidity (39%), followed by occupational accident (15.3%), fall (11.6%) and violence (7.7%). In comparison with 6 months of 2008, road traffic injury morbidity and mortality decreased by 2.1% and 0.9%, respectively. RTI accounted for 33.5% of hospitalised injury cases. Brain injury among RTI accounted for 24.3% and was mainly among male (74.3%), those over 60 aged (27.2%) and under 4 aged (26.8%). 19.2% of brain injury cases did not wear helmets. Drinking-driving among RTI accounted for 8.8%. RTI involved motorcycle accounted for 66.2%. Injury data were different between different ministries. In the 6 first months of 2009, health sector reported 68.510 hospitalised RTI cases while the Ministry of Transportation reported only 5.127 RTI cases.

Conclusions Injury is a major health problem in Vietnam. Injury surveillance system provides information data for decision making, planning and interventions. However, injury data from different sectors should be united and integrated.