Local authorities are conducting laboratory appraisals to prepare for Ebola testing in Vietnam though no infections have been reported in the country, said the Ministry of Health (MoH). The ministry will run more communication campaigns, equip laboratories with all the necessary facilities, and command localities to prepare for the disease, said Dr. Tran Dac Phu, head of the ministry’s Preventive Medicine Center, said at a meeting on Oct 14. Experts attending the meeting have urged Vietnam to continue to keep a close look on its ports of entry and the communities where expats from Congo, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal live. Vietnam, however, has not yet conducted medical declarations for passengers from the U.S. and Spain, where three Ebola patients, the first cases outside of the virus-affected region, have been recorded. The Vietnamese government has allowed the health ministry to proactively use its standby fund worth 345,000, tailored for countering epidemics in 2014, for preventive measures against Ebola epidemic. Nina Pham, daughter of political refugees from Vietnam, became the second Ebola patient in the U.S. on Oct 10. The Texas nurse contracted Ebola while caring for “patient zero” Thomas Eric Duncan - the man who brought the deadly virus to America. The Ebola virus was still raging across the West African countries, resulting in 8,376 patients and 4,024 deaths so far. (Tuoi Tre – Youth Oct14)
