Serum bank for controlling infectious diseases operational in HCM City
The Ho Chi Minh City Centre for Disease Control (HCDC) on August 17 officially put into operation a serum bank that aims to provide a toolkit to assess the burden of infectious disease in the community and guide medical decisions in public healthcare centres in the future.
Ho Chi Minh City (VNA) – The Ho Chi Minh City Centre forDisease Control (HCDC) on August 17 officiallyput into operation a serum bank that aimsto provide a toolkit to assess the burden of infectious disease inthe community and guide medical decisions in public healthcare centres in thefuture.
The serumbank now can handle 4,000-4,500samples and is expected to increase the storage capacity in the near future.
Director of HCDC Dr. Nguyen Hong Tam said that the serum bank will collect,preserve, and supply samples for testing of infectious diseases for predictionor early detection of outbreaks, assessment of herd immunity, evaluation of theeffectiveness of interventions, and investigation of the silent circulation ofthe pathogen.
He said the HCDC will develop a planto collect periodic samples for the serum bank and develop a set of proceduresfor storing and using samples for different purposes of pandemic control.
It will build data analysis models and provide orientations for public health decisions in the locality.
The HCDC will take samples from the serum bank to assess immunityagainst measles and hand, foot and mouth disease for assessment of the city’sepidemic risk.
The city’s health sector willcontinue to expand the sample source and diversify the types of samples to meetthe needs of infectious disease control.
According to Assoc. Prof. Le Van Tan from the University ofOxford’s Clinical Research Unit, for a long time, countries around the worldhave built serum banks and serological epidemiological investigation programs.For example, the UK-based serum bank which was established in 1986 has so farcollected over 200,000 serum samples from British people of different ages.
In Vietnam, several serum banks have also been establishedthrough the epidemiological investigation research programme of the Ministry ofHealth, the Hanoi-based National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, and theHo Chi Minh City-based Pasteur Institute including surveillance programs ofHIV, Zika virus, hepatitis B and C, influenza A H5N1.
꧅ In 2022, the HCDC coordinated with the University of Oxford toconduct three surveys and collect serum samples to help define immunity toCOVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2, said Tan./.
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A staff at serum centre test samples.(Photo: VNA) 
