The impact of extreme weather events on primary healthcare facilities in Vietnam: results from a cross-sectional survey of 128 commune health centers affected by Super Typhoon Yagi (2024)

Background: Health system resilience is crucial for minimizing mortality and morbidity during emergencies and extreme weather events (EWEs). Vietnam is among the countries with the highest disaster risk globally. However, evidence on the immediate impacts of EWEs on grassroots primary healthcare facilities remains limited. This study aimed to investigate the immediate impacts of super Typhoon Yagi (7-9 September 2024) on various aspects of commune health centers (CHCs) across the 10 most severely affected provinces in northern Vietnam.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey using a structured, self-administered questionnaire was conducted in December 2024 with 128 CHCs most severely affected, accounted for 6.9% of the total CHCs in the 10 selected provinces. The survey assessed damage to infrastructure, the healthcare workforce capacity, and service delivery within one-week following Typhoon Yagi.

Results: Typhoon Yagi caused widespread infrastructure damage, with 27.3% to 52.3% of CHCs reporting physical impacts across service areas. Severe damage or destruction was most frequent in utility systems, including clean water tanks (10.8%) and lighting (14.0%). One-quarter (25.8%) of CHCs reported staff shortages due to absenteeism, while 51.4% noted mental health impacts on workers. Service delivery was significantly hampered: 40.6% of CHCs lost electricity and 39.8% experienced complete communication failure. Consequently, about a half of the facilities reported interruptions in important curative services, and 13.4% saw severe or complete disruption of vaccination services. There were strong associations between infrastructure damage and impacts on key clinical and preventive services and reduced staff presence.

Conclusions: While the study focuses on an extreme scenario by sampling the most severely impacted CHCs, the findings highlight acute vulnerabilities in CHC infrastructure and workforce stability, which resulted in critically limited service delivery under maximum stress. These results reflect localized gaps in disaster preparedness rather than nationwide deficiencies; however, they serve as a critical “stress test” for the primary healthcare system. Strengthening resilience must be prioritized, particularly in high-risk regions, to ensure service continuity amidst Vietnam’s ongoing administrative restructuring.