The northern border province of Lao Cai is taking various measures that focus on health monitoring for people at border entry points, to prevent Zika virus from entering Vietnam.
Checking the body temperature of passengers (Source: VNA)
Lao Cai (VNA)𒈔 – The northern border province of Lao Cai is taking various measures that focus on health monitoring for people at border entry points, to prevent Zika virus from entering Vietnam.
The provincial international medical quarantine centre has arranged body temperature scanners at border areas, particularly passengers coming from Zika virus hit countries, and high-risk groups.
Tran Duc Hung, vice director of the centre said there are over 2,000 travelers going through the Lao Cai international border gate a day, mostly Vietnamese and Chinese.
As part of efforts to contain diseases that may be caused by the virus, the centre has intensified environmental sanitation and quarantine work at border gates.
Medical quarantine teams at border gates across the province have also promoted publicity campaigns, in a bid to raise awareness of precautionary measures against the virus.
The Zika virus 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 Zika.
It was first identified in Uganda in 1947 in rhesus monkeys. It was confirmed in humans five years later in Uganda and Tanzania.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recorded the most number of Zika virus cases in the Americas and Africa.
According to WHO, the Zika virus is spreading explosively. By January 19, 27 countries and territories worldwide had confirmed Zika infections.
Vietnam has no case of Zika infection so far.
The Ministry of Health recently issued guidance on diagnosis and treatment for the virus./.
The Centre for International Health Quarantine of Ho Chi Minh City is carrying out various measures to prevent Zika virus from entering the country and to contain it in case the disease does occur.
Vietnam runs a high risk of recording a case of Zika virus infection, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said during an inspection of virus prevention measures in Ho Chi Minh City on February 4.
Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long has suggested Vietnam expand supervising subjects to prevent the spread of Zika virus into the country as it is continually developing globally.
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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.
Checking the body temperature of passengers (Source: VNA)
