The Vietnamese Ministry of Health on June 6 issued an action plan against the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in an effort to promptly detect and treat infected cases and to prevent an outbreak of the disease in Vietnam.

The plan includes solutions for three scenarios; one in which no cases have been reported; in the second one cases have been identified and the third one is when the disease has begun to spread in a community.

The plan underlines the importance of supervision, especially at border gates, and personal protection for medical staff.

The plan recommends the health sector establish a network of hospitals ready to admit and treat patients in accordance to each scenario, to prevent overloading.

Rules on medical examination, isolation, treatment and the prevention of infection and cross-infection at hospitals must strictly be followed, while the methods of diagnosis and treatment of MERS-Cov must constantly be reviewed and updated.

According to the ministry, prevention measures are extremely necessary because the possibility of MERS-Cov entering Vietnam and developing into an epidemic is high given that the disease is able to be spread through human contact.

The MERS-CoV has been spread from the Middle East to some countries in Asia and no vaccine or medicine has been found to cure the disease.

Good personal hygiene and community publicity campaigns are the major prevention measures at the moment.

Vietnam ready to prevent MERS-CoV spread

The Steering Committee for Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases and its units stand ready to prevent the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) from coming to Vietnam or any death related to it, Minister of Public Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien told a meeting in Hanoi on June 8.

The most effective precaution is isolation and pasteurisation in hospitals, she said.

Head of the Ministry of Public Health’s Department of Preventive Medicine Tran Dac Phu admitted no case of MERS-CoV in Vietnam but warned about its risk of arrival.

Three cases of suspected infection in Vietnam have been tested negative to the virus.

The same day, the ministry held a live nationwide training session on MERS-CoV supervision and treatment.

In the face of the MERS-CoV outbreak in the Middle East and the Republic of Korea, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism and the Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism issued a document guiding the temporary delay of tours to affected countries.

In southern metropolis Ho Chi Minh City, the municipal Department of Public Health asked agencies and units concerned to keep alert and vigilant to the virus threat.

According to the World Health Organisation, MERS-CoV has so far spread to 26 countries with 1,218 patients, 450 of whom have died. In the Republic of Korea, 87 cases have been recorded with six deaths.

MERS-CoV, first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012, belongs to a family of corona viruses including SARS, which haunted Asia in 2003.

The disease can spread between humans and causes fevers, breathing problems, pneumonia and kidney failure.

Vietnamese tourists cancel trips to RoK amid MERS fears: report

Many Vietnamese tourists have canceled planned trips to the Republic of Korea (RoK), where the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has killed seven out of 95 infection cases so far.

Tu Quy Thanh, director of Ho Chi Minh City-based Lien Bang Travelink Company, was quoted by Saigon Times Online as saying on June 7 that about 20% of his clients who booked tours for this month have scrapped their plan and received refunds.

The company, which often sent two to four groups of tourists to the RoK a month prior to the MERS outbreak, also suspended all their tours scheduled for next month, he said.

The tours will be resumed when the containment of the outbreak shows positive signs, possibly in August, Thanh said.

An unnamed director of a travel company in Hanoi reported the cancellation rate at nearly 30%, and that it was increasing.

In the meantime, the office of the Korea Tourism Organization in Vietnam has sent a notification to local tour operators, saying that it is still safe to travel to the RoK.

Places reported with outbreaks are located in Gyeonggi Province's Pyeongtaek City, far from tourist destinations like Seoul and Busan, according to the office.

Moreover, there are no chances that tourists come in contact with patients in a narrow space to get infected with the virus, it said in response to Vietnamese travel companies' inquiries for updates on the situation.

As a favorite destination among Vietnamese, the RoK reported over 86,000 arrivals from Vietnam over the first five months, and more than 140,000 last year.

HCM City acts to ward off threat of MERS epidemic

The HCM City Centre for International Health Quarantine has put in place all preventive measures to keep out Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) at Tan Son Nhat International Airport, a top city health official said.

Nguyen Huu Hung, deputy head of the city Department of Health, said following an inspection on Saturday that four infrared thermometers had been installed to screen passengers, especially those arriving from the Middle East and Korea, where MERS-CoV had broken out.

If anyone is found with a high temperature, they would be sent to an isolation room on the first floor for examination, he said.

If anyone is suspected of having MERS-CoV infection, they would be taken to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases for diagnosis and quarantining.

The city Centre for Emergency Aid would transport them, he added.

Since June 5 all passengers arriving from the Middle East and Korea have been given health declaration forms, which will be sent to preventive health centres in their neighbourhood in the city.

Nguyen Hong Tam, deputy head of the centre, said they had worked with airport authorities to earmark one exit for passengers arriving from the Middle East and Korea so that they could be screened.

It was very important not to miss out a single person coming from these countries, he said.

Passengers arriving from the two places were also being provided with leaflets about the disease and ways to prevent transmission, he said.

Three flights from the Middle East and seven from Korea arrive every day with a total of 1,750 passengers.

As of June 6 no one had arrived with high temperature, he added.

Hung said no MERS-CoV case had been diagnosed in the country so far.

He instructed the centre to work with the airport authorities to show videos of the disease.

Preventive measures had also been taken at ports and border gates, he quoted the health ministry as saying.

The city Preventive Health Centre had formed four mobile teams to carry out prevention efforts in the community, he said.

All health staff in the city would be given more training in how to diagnose and prevent the disease as well as treat it, he said.

Hospitals had been instructed to ask patients with symptoms of respiratory ailments if they had recently visited countries affected by MERS-CoV, and anyone who had would be tested, he said

Health authorities had made thorough preparations to handle any outbreak of the disease, and the public should not be too worried, he said, but added that people should follow the authorities' warnings.

Pham Thi Ngoc Thao, the hospital's deputy head, said that a steering board for disease prevention and treatment had been established and that medical staff had been trained in diagnosis of MERS.

The hospital would use a four-storey building to isolate and treat patients if the Hospital for Tropical Diseases had too many patients to treat, she said.

Nguyen Truong Son, head of Cho Ray Hospital, said that equipment was available for diagnosis and treatment, including breathing machines.

By the end of this week, 30 more breathing machines would be added, he said.

On Sunday, three persons, suspected of MERS-CoV, tested negative for the disease, a health ministry representative said.

The three persons had returned from Dubai, South Korea and China earlier this month.

The latest case involved a 52-year-old woman from the southern province of Binh Duong, who returned from Dubai last Thursday.

In the north, the National Tropical Diseases Hospital also received two persons, who returned from South Korea and China with symptoms of fever and cough. They too tested negative for MERS. 

VNA/Thanhniennews