The meeting is an important landmark for the Ministries of Public Health and Agriculture and Rural Development and PAHI members to assess the nation’s integrated operational programme on avian and human influenza in the 2006-2010 period, the pandemic situation and the activities of partners.

The participants highlighted Vietnam’s effort to cope with avian influenza and a potential outbreak of human influenza over the years.

Vietnam should control the avian influenza virus to save vaccination costs, experts recommended, emphasising the need to restructure the production, transport, and consumption of poultry throughout the country.

The country should review its national pandemic preparedness planning for large, complicated and unforeseeable disasters, they said.

The participants were also kept abreast of preparations for the international ministerial conference on “Animal and Pandemic Influenza: The Way Forward” (IMCAPI) scheduled to be held in April.