Int’l Experts Warn Vietnamese of Disease Transmission Risk from Wild Animals

Using wild animals for food and medicinal purposes will raise the risk of disease transmission from wild animals to people and domestic animals in Vietnam, foreign experts warned at a conference on emerging diseases and wild animals, in Hanoi on March 15. The event was co-organized by the Wildlife Conservation Society in Vietnam, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Recent reports showed that Southeast Asia is a hot spot of emerging disease outbreak with 75% of infectious diseases in humans sourced from animals, the experts noted. People now have better awareness of the connection between human health, animals and the environment, Director of USAID Vietnam Francis Donovan said, that Vietnam is one of the pioneers in applying the “One-Health” approach to develop policies to cope with its possible pandemics. Donovan also emphasized the necessity to improve capacity in discovering and coping with dangerous communicable diseases, especially high-risk areas, adding that transmission of such pandemics as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) or bird flu resulted in severe impacts on the public health and economic development. However, wild animal meat remains popular among Vietnamese partly because of its perceived health benefits, experts said. (Vietnamplus.vn Mar 15)