The Central Hygiene and Epidemiology Institute and the Norwegian Embassy in Vietnam signed in Hanoi on Dec. 13 a project on enhancement of bio-safety and bio-security management and control worth about 990,000 USD.

The non-refundable aid project will be carried out from now till December 2012 with the aim of developing standards, guidance, management of bio-safety and bio-security in Vietnam.

The project also focuses on strengthening capacity of the bio-security labs at the institute, the Central Hospital of Lung Diseases and the Pham Ngoc Thach Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.

With the installation of the level 3 bio-security lab at the institute in 2008, the country’s health sector fully takes the initiative in diagnosing dangerous diseases, such as flu type A/H5N1, A/H1N1./.