# 6166
Compared to the `bad old days’ of 2004 and 2005 - a time during which they saw 90 human cases and 39 deaths - Vietnam has made considerable progress in their fight against the H5N1 bird flu virus.
By 2006, they’d gone from being the worst afflicted country in the world to being viewed as the `poster child’ for successful bird flu containment.
But that victory was fleeting.
After more than a year of near-quiescence, the virus retuned in 2007, and since then Vietnam has been engaged in a more-or-less constant battle with sporadic outbreaks of the virus in poultry, along with occasional human infections and fatalities.
During the first six weeks of 2012, Vietnam has recorded dozens of outbreaks of the virus in poultry, and has reported two fatal cases of the disease.
Of particular concern this winter has been the emergence of a new vaccine resistant clade of the virus (2.3.2.1) in the northern part of the country, which spurred an FAO warning last fall (see FAO Warns on Bird Flu).
All of which serves as prelude to the following story from the Sai Gon Giai Phong (SGGP) online, outlining the emergency steps being taken by the government to try to prevent a massive outbreak of the virus.
The following is just an excerpt, follow the link to read it in its entirety.
PM calls for urgent measures to prevent spread of bird flu
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on February 20 sent an urgent dispatch to all provincial authorities to step up measures and tighten supervision so as to prevent the spread of bird flu (H5N1) virus, which has reoccurred in Vietnam.
The dispatch clearly states of the high risk of a fresh bird flu outbreak in Vietnam. Provincial People’s Committees have been ordered to improve food hygiene, especially in slaughterhouses and processing units and constantly monitor bird flu cases so as to contain the infection.
Local authorities have been asked to closely cooperate with the Ministry of Health and the Steering Committee for Bird Flu Prevention to conduct timely action and keep the authorities briefed on all developments concerning spread of the virus.
The dispatch also states that the health minister monitor all infected cases and step up ways to reduce fatal deaths, provide sufficient disinfectant chemicals and necessary medical equipment to fight the disease.
Inspectors from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have arrived in provinces to supervise and monitor measures to contain the spread of the dreaded bird flu virus.
The People’s Committee of the Mekong delta province of Dong Thap has ordered related agencies in its districts to implement appropriate measures, ask staff to work round-the-clock and set up a hotline to receive information of fresh outbreaks in the province.
Agricultural authorities’ in Dong Thap Province must monitor closely all breeding farms, households maintaining indoor incubators, open bred water fowl and all markets selling poultry.
Meanwhile the Steering Committee for Bird Flu Prevention in the Mekong delta province of Ca Mau has instructed the department of animal health to spray disinfectant in farms most vulnerable to the infection.
Authorities in Ca Mau have made it mandatory for breeders owning more than 20 poultry to vaccinate, or else the government will not support them in event of losses.
As we’ve seen with Indonesia, Egypt, Bangladesh, India, and China . . . once the H5N1 virus becomes well established in a region, it can be extraordinarily difficult to eradicate.
For now, the virus remains very difficult for humans to contract - but the concern is that the more opportunities we afford it - the better the chances are that the virus will eventually figure us out.
Of concern, while we hear very little out of neighboring Laos and Cambodia, the assumption must be that the virus is probably making inroads in those nations as well.
