Vietnam had reported no new human cases of avian influenza A/H5N1 and the country had successfully controlled outbreaks of the H5N1 strain over the past five years. (Photo: baothaibinh.com.vn)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – Vietnam had
reported no new human cases of and the country had
successfully controlled outbreaks of the over the past five years,
an official said.
Deputy Minister of
Agriculture and Rural Development said the country had also coordinated
with domestic and international organisations by sharing information and
implementing measures to cope with .
At a meeting between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development (MARD) and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention of the US (CDC)
in Hanoi on December 11, he said the CDC had offered effective support
for Vietnam’s animal health sector in combating diseases.
The MARD pledged to
effectively implement programmes supported by the CDC and hoped the
organisation would continue to share information to assist the country in
vaccine production and research, he said.
The CDC said it valued
the initiative taken by the animal health sector in Vietnam to control
diseases. The agency said that it would extend its support in sharing its
monitoring and disease control toolkit as well as dispatch experts to help Vietnam
better control influenza and rabies.
John Blandford, country
director of the CDC, said the CDC had used a bird flu isolated in Vietnam to
standardize production of the Navet-vifluvac vaccine.
The CDC had also agreed to transfer advanced
techniques and technologies for bird flu and rabies vaccine production in Vietnam,
he said.
The CDC helped Vietnam carry out the
“Studies at the Animal-Human Interface of Influenza and Other Zoonotic
Diseases” project from 2012-17 with total investment of over 2.3 million
USD.
The Department of Animal Health under MARD was
the main recipient along with research partners including the National Centre
for Veterinary Diagnosis.
Under the project, thousands of samples were collected
from poultry, pigs and humans in 12 provinces each year.
The project aimed to strengthen the capacity of
the animal health and public health sectors to design, conduct, analyse and
describe the results of local, regional and national surveillance and research
studies.
The results of the tests have helped authorities
understand and apply control and intervention measures for influenza and
other zoonotic diseases.
The CDC is also sponsoring continuation of the
project between 2017-2022 with 2 million USD investment. It targets different
types of bird flu including H5N1, H5N6 and H7N9 at live poultry markets and
smuggling/culling points in 10 selected provinces and cities.-VNS/VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
