Vietnam is stockpiling 880,000 doses of anti-flu vaccines and is capable of producing an additional 20 million doses if necessary, said a health official.

At the ASEAN + 3 Health Ministers meeting, which opened in Bangkok on May 8, to seek measures to prevent and control influenza A/H1N1 in the region, Health Minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu said Vietnam has launched a campaign to raise the public’s awareness of the virus, purchased more medical equipment and liaised with other regional countries to build up a mutual stock of vaccines.

He also stressed on the necessity for more collaboration between regional countries to supervise, identify and isolate cases to control the spread of the pandemic.

Regional countries should also support each other by providing thermal scanners, anti-virus vaccines and step up the transfer of technologies, he said.

According to the Thai health ministry’s spokesperson Suphan Srithamma, regional health officials agreed to increase emergency stocks of the anti-flu medicine Tamiflu, to ensure that the region will be able to cope with the spread of the H1N1 virus.

The meeting adopted a joint statement committing themselves to working side by side to combat the A/H1N1 flu with five measures to be implemented including information exchange, the deployment of quick-response taskforce to monitor border areas, cooperation among regional laboratories in virus testing, the establishment of a system for the evacuation of people from epidemic-hit areas and cooperation in medicine research.

The ministers also agreed on the installation of health check equipment at border gates but no travel restriction will be applied.

A hotline connecting regional countries’ health ministries will be established to facilitate their coordination.

Latest figures provided by WHO Vietnam show that 2,371 cases of influenza A/H1N1 have been confirmed in 24 countries and territories./.