Hanoi’s Health Department held a meeting on March 31 to mobilise all available resources as precautions for a Zika outbreak, after the Ministry of Health raised the Zika virus emergency level to 2.
Medical staff sprays chemical to kill mosquito in Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi. (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – Hanoi’s Health Departmen🧸t held a meeting on March 3𓆉1 to mobilise all available resources as precautions for a Zika outbreak, after the Ministry of Health raised the Zika virus emergency level to 2.
Head of the department Nguyen Khac Hien said alarm bells are ringing, as approximately 8,000 foreigners entering the capital city through Noi Bai Airport on a daily basis.
According to him, 62 local general hospitals are tasked with keeping a close watch on their patients, and communities across the city must monitor residents returning from overseas – especially Zika-hit countries.
The city is operating 65 mobile disease-prevention teams and stockpiling a large amount of relevant chemicals and medical equipment.
A promotion campaign will be carried out at border checkpoints so visitors know where to go if they have any symptoms of Zika.
Locals are advised to protect themselves and their families using mosquito repellent, and securely cover all containers of water to prevent mosquitoes from entering them and laying eggs.
Currently, Hanoi has no cases of Zika virus. Six suspected dengue-fever samples were tested, producing negative results.
According to the WHO, 59 countries and territories have recorded Zika cases. Some foreigners, after leaving several Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, were also reported to have tested positive for Zika.
Zika is mainly transmitted through the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which also carries dengue fever. The virus has been linked to microcephaly, a condition that causes babies to be born with unusually small heads and, in the vast majority of cases, brain damage. Currently there is no vaccine or specific medicine to treat the disease.-VNA
About 1,600 samples of blood and body fluids will be taken to test for the Zika virus in Ho Chi Minh City and the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong from March 28 to April 8.
The central province of Quang Tri has taken numerous comprehensive measures against the Zika virus along the border with Laos, where a case was recently discovered.
The Ministry of Health asked the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong to raise the warning level for the Zika virus, after an Australia visitor tested positive upon return from Vietnam.
No mosquito-borne Zika virus case has been reported within Vietnam so far this year, as samples collected are confirmed by labs as negative for the virus.
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After more than three weeks of intensive treatment, the patient's pneumonia improved, breathing stabilised, sedation was reduced, and the breathing tube was removed. He is now conscious, able to eat orally, and in recovery.
Medical staff sprays chemical to kill mosquito in Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi. (Photo: VNA)
