Epidemiologists emphasise surveillance in fight against bird flu
The effective surveillance system will help strengthen the concerned agencies' capacity to detect the virus and improve their ability to prevent and ward off risks of new outbreaks, the epidemiologists from the Central Epidemiology Institute (CEI), the World Health Organisation and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the US said at a symposium in Ha Noi on October 27-28.
CDC has financed a project to develop a bird flu surveillance system in Viet Nam, which is scheduled to operate between November this year and October 2006.
Some hospitals and health centres in Ha Noi, northern Thai Binh province, central highlands Dac Lac province, central coastal Khanh Hoa province and Ho Chi Minh City will be the first beneficiaries of the project, which is managed by CEI.
At the symposium, the participants were told that Viet Nam launched a national avian influenza surveillance programme in February this year with a long-term goal of establishing a nationwide avian influenza surveillance network.
For its part, the Health Ministry has ordered all healthcare clinics to report to major hospitals all suspected cases of the H5N1 virus, which have occurred since the first bird flu victim was detected in the country.
Though having achieved certain results in controlling bird flu, Vietnamese epidemiologists admitted that the country's epidemic surveilance network has failed to meet the requirements - almost all diagnoses were undertaken without reliable laboratory tests.
The CEI is working on the creation of H5N1 type A vaccine for humans. Its lab that specialises in avian influenza was recognised by the WHO as the "National Centre for Avian Influenza Prevention and Control" in March this year./.
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