HO CHI MINH CITY, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Despite its considerable tuberculosis (TB) prevention efforts and high rate of successful treatment, Vietnam is still ranked the 16th among 30 countries in the world with the biggest numbers of TB patients, according to statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Vietnam spots nearly 130,000 TB patients each year, the country's National Lung Hospital said on Saturday, quoting the WHO's estimation.

Recently, Vietnam has quickly and effectively applied new technologies to fight TB in a short period of time, and it has planned to eliminate the disease by 2030.

Since the adoption of multidrug-resistant TB treatment in 2009, Vietnam has treated some 11,000 patients with the success rate of over 70 percent, the hospital said, noting that the world's rate of successfully treating multidrug-resistant TB is 54 percent.