Vietnam on high alert of avian influenza virus intrusion

During a press conference in Vung Tau city, southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province on March 21, Dr. Pham Hung, head of the Office for Infectious Diseases Control from the Department of Preventive Medicine, said the A/H7N9 virus has hit Chinese localities and the A/H5N1 virus was spotted in Cambodian provinces, which border Vietnam.

Meanwhile, as of March 14, outbreaks of A/H5N1 and A/H5N7 flu were detected in fowls in Vietnam.

Hung raised the need to intensify monitoring the smuggling of poultry via transit markets and tracks and expanding supervision at localities bordering China and Cambodia as well as poultry and poultry product wholesale markets. 

He also warned people traveling to outbreak-affect localities and those who worked with poultry to reach health care facilities as soon as showing symptoms.

He asserted that the toughest challenge in controlling the H7N9 virus is unobvious symptoms in affected livestock.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has strengthened supervision in markets and centres trading poultry, but no infections have been found, he said.

Monitoring activities will also be expanded among the communities, especially that along the border with China and Cambodia, while equipment, medicine and human resources have been prepared to deal with the outbreak of the virus, said Hung.