H5N1 Outbreaks In Vietnam - Map Credit OIE
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While an emerging H3N2v swine flu and reports of H3N8 `seal flu’ have been making headlines over the past few weeks, in Vietnam the struggle to contain and control outbreaks of H5N1 bird flu in poultry continues.
In recent days Vietnam has reported fresh outbreaks of the disease in the cities of Hai Duong and Hai Phong, and the provinces of Quang Binh and Ha Tinh.
Today, local media is reporting that Nguyen Van Binh, head of Department of Preventive Health, has ordered new steps to be taken across the country to curb the spread of the virus.
The story appears in the Saigon-Daily, and it appears to call for a fresh look, and new approaches to containing the disease.
Health departments to ascertain, curb possible spread of H5N1 virus
Friday, Aug 10, 2012
Nguyen Van Binh, head of Department of Preventive Health, said that municipal and provincial departments of health across the country have been ordered to do a thorough study of old cases of outbreaks of diseases, so as to ascertain and curb the possible spread of H5N1 virus.
Medical workers, especially those at border gates, have been advised to keep a close watch on patients suspected of having contracted the H5N1 strain, by placing them in quarantine and isolation wards in hospitals.
Vietnam was one of the earliest countries affected by the H5N1 virus, and for a time, lead the world in human cases and deaths.
Through massive educational and regulatory efforts, 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 nearly 18 months of quiescence, the virus retuned in 2007. 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.
The latest OIE filing on the H5N1 virus (08/08/12
Follow-up report No. 73) indicates there have been 346 outbreaks reported since 2007.
The news out of Vietnam isn’t all bad.
Despite hundreds of outbreaks in poultry, they’ve managed to keep reported human cases down to the low and mid single digits since 2007.
A far cry from the 61 cases they reported in 2005.
Today’s report indicates that there are still great concerns over the the spread of virus in Vietnam, particularly in those provinces bordering China, Laos, and Cambodia.
The arrival of a vaccine resistant clade of the H5N1 virus (2.3.2.1) in 2010 (see FAO Warns on Bird Flu), only increases the need for Vietnam to be proactive in identifying and containing the virus.
