Vietnam prepared for bird flu return

[Snowy Owl]

Vietnam prepared for bird flu return
http://www.thanhniennews.com/healthy/?catid=8&newsid=19858

Vietnam’s Health Ministry has drafted a national action plan to prevent a relapse of human bird flu infection.

[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]The epidemic still threatened Vietnam and its neighboring countries and humans were highly susceptible to the type-A flu virus especially in winter, the ministry warned.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Under the plan the Vietnamese government has earmarked VND1 trillion (over US$62 million) for facilities to prevent and control the epidemic.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Besides equipping local health centers, the ministry has also assigned 14 hospitals in the national disease control and prevention system to keep continuous watch to tackle probable outbreaks.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]If the epidemic broke out on a large scale, more provincial hospitals will be co-opted to treat H5N1-infected patients.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Bird flu has so far killed at least 141 people in 10 countries since December 2003.

[/FONT] [FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Vietnam has registered 42 fatalities, second only after Indonesia where 47 have been killed.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Source: Sai Gon Giai Phong – Translated by Tuong Nhi[/FONT]
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