A medical worker is spraying chemical to prevent dengue outbreak (Source: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The UK Space
Agency’s (IPP) allocates 6 million GBP
for Vietnam to build an early warning system of dengue fever outbreaks, said UK
Science Minister Sam Gyimah.
This is one of the ten projects funded
by the .
Of the amount, 4.1 million GBP comes
from official development assistance (ODA) sourced by the agency, and the rest
is contributed by stakeholders.
A group of , led by the
HR Wallingford, will collaborate with Vietnamese partners to develop dengue
outbreak early warning tools, thus facilitating resources mobilization and
allocation for targeted areas.
Dengue forecast will also be made with
different scenarios on climate change under the project. The warning system
will include models to evaluate water resources, thus improving water
management in border-cross river basin areas.
The project will be jointly implemented
by the Health Ministry, Vietnam Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology
and Climate change (IMHEN), Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City, the National
Institute of Hygiene Epidemiology (NIHE), the World Health Organisation and the
United Nations Development Programme.
Ambassador of the UK in Vietnam Giles
Lever said the project will foster the cooperation between the UK and Vietnam
in science, research and creativeness.
Via the Newton Vietnam Fund, the UK is providing
assistance for new cooperation study projects joined by Vietnamese and English
scientists in many fields, including agriculture and community health, he
added.
The UK’s Fleming Fund is also offering
help to Vietnam to implement the national action plan on antibiotics resistance
prevention.
Dengue fever has become one of the serious
problems for the community health, particularly following the surge in dengue
fever cases in 2017.
Last year, 183,287 cases of dengue fever
were reported nationwide, mostly in the south and the north, including 154,552
hospitalised patients and 30 deaths.
This is the second IPP-funded project in
Vietnam. The programme provided 2.5 million GBP for a project on natural
disaster adaption in Vietnam in 2016.-VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
