Vietnam steps up Ebola prevention efforts

Hanoi, August 12 (VNA)- The Prime Minister has instructed actions in all fields to prevent the Ebola virus from entering the country while making necessary preparations for all possible scenarios in case the disease appears. Under dispatch No 1392/CD-TTg issued on August 9, the Ministry of Health was required to closely work with the World Health Organisation (WHO), international organisations and relevant countries to keep close watch on the disease, which is spreading in a number of African countries. The PM also told the ministry to collaborate with related agencies to strengthen monitor border gates as well as in communities in order to quickly detect and isolate people suspected of having the virus or contact with the virus. Training courses should be organized immediately to teach medical staff how to quickly respond to the disease if it hits Vietnam. The Ministry of Information and Communications and people’s committees of provinces and cities must join the Ministry of Public Health in guiding the mass media to swiftly popularise information relating to the virus to the public as well as advice on how to protect them from the disease. No case of Ebola virus has been recorded in Vietnam so far. In an effort to prevent the disease, the Ministry of Health will ask people from West African countries affected by the Ebola outbreak to sign a medical declaration before entering Vietnam from August 15. Any person suspected of having come into contact with the virus will be stopped at airports or border gates by quarantine staff, isolated and given medical support. According to WHO, Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals. It then spreads in the community through human-to-human transmission, with infection resulting from direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluids. The disease is a severe acute viral illness often characterised by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. At present no licenced vaccination for Ebola is available. As of August 6, WHO reported 1,779 Ebola cases, with the death toll rising to 961, mostly in West African countries of Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone./.