The U.S. government will donate $100,000 worth of medical equipment to help Vietnamese health workers to cope with bird flu or A/H1N1 flu outbreaks, the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam said in a statement Mar. 22. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) implemented the aid package at the request of the Vietnamese Ministry of Health with technical assistance by the World Health Organization. The equipment, which includes 11,000 personal protective sets and four sets of laboratory tools, will be forwarded to epidemiological establishments, Institute Pasteur and localities that are at risk for outbreak of avian influenza. The U.S. government has granted more than $50 million to prevent influenza in Vietnam since 2005.
