A seafood market in Wuhan where dozens of people are found to be infected with severe pneumonia virus. (Photo: South China Morning Post)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) –
The Vietnamese Ministry of Health is closely monitoring an ongoing severe
in central , as well as taking measures to prevent the
virus from entering Vietnam.
Dang Quang Tan, Deputy Director
of the Department of Preventive Medicine under the , said:
“We have contacted the World Health Organisation to keep updated about the
virus.”
The ministry will step up
surveillance at border gates and among communities, he said.
According to the department, as
of December 2019, there were 27 cases of viral pneumonia of unknown origin
reported in Wuhan, central Hubei province, China.
Seven patients were in critical
condition. Others are stable. There have been no recorded fatalities, however.
Most of those infected are
store owners at a local seafood market. Local authorities have closed the
market for further investigation.
The Chinese health ministry has
taken measures to control the outbreak and conducted more testing to identify
the specific cause.
There has been no evidence so
far of human-to-human transmission. No medical workers have been infected with
the virus, according to the Chinese health ministry.
China’s state media reported
that the outbreak is suspected of being linked to Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome (), a highly contagious respiratory disease which infected more
than 8,000 people around the world in 2003.
Tan said SARS is a dangerous
virus which appeared for the first time at the end of 2002 and beginning of
2003.
SARS’ symptoms are quite like
those of severe flu. Vietnam is in flu season with A/H1N1 and B being the most
common types, he told Tuoi tre (Youth) newspaper.
He advised the public not to be
worried as successful treatment for the virus is available, unlike the
situation in 2003 when medical workers did not know much about the virus, causing
it to spread quickly./.
Source: VietnamPlus
