Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Aug. 9 issued an urgent telegraph requesting the Ministry of Health (MoH) and other ministries and agencies to take preventative measures to minimize the risk of the Ebola virus entering Vietnam. No Ebola case has been reported in Vietnam but the risk is possible as Vietnamese guest workers and students return home or tourists travel to the country from Africa, according to the telegraph. The PM asked the MoH to closely work with the World Health Organization (WHO), international organizations and related countries to keep a close watch on the situation, forecast the spread of the virus to Vietnam and prepare plans to cope with the Ebola outbreak. He also ordered ministries and agencies to mobilize the latest state-of-the-art medical equipment and strictly monitor travelers at border gates and airports for timely detection and isolation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism should also take immediate measures to limit travel and work of any staff in the nations that have reported breakouts. The telegraph didn’t mention whether or not the Ministry of Industry and Trade may be allowed to issue a temporary ban on importing products from the Ebola virus-infected African areas. Dr. Tran Dac Phu, head of the Preventive Medicine Center under the Ministry of Health, has said that the ministry has prepared three action plans to cope with the Ebola virus in order to detect the disease quickly, prevent its spread and minimize mortality, in case the deadly virus penetrates into Vietnam in the time ahead. Moreover, the ministry asked all air passengers coming to Vietnam from the Ebola-hit countries in Africa including Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria to fill out health declaration forms from August 15 onward. The ministry also asked its units in all localities to coordinate with other competent bodies to check people, animals, vehicles and goods sending to Vietnam through border gates, said Dr. Phu. Any passengers are discovered to have high fever, headache, muscle pain, sore throat, acute diarrhea, rash and internal and external bleeding, health workers should take or isolate them properly in quarantined zones for treatment and report the case to the ministry. WHO, which declared the Ebola outbreak an “international public health emergency”, said that vaccine against Ebola virus could be available in the market from the beginning of next year. The highly contagious and deadly virus had killed nearly 961 out of 1,779 infected cases in four West African nations by Aug 6. No Ebola virus cases in Philippines and Thailand were confirmed. (chinhphu.vn Aug 9)
