The Hanoi Health Department has intensified health checks and inspections at Noi Bai International Airport in the face of the complex development of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) in the world.

The department has asked the international health quarantine centre in collaboration with state management agencies at the airport to closely monitor planes and passengers entering the country through Noi Bai airport, especially those from the disease-hit places.

Medical checks and preventive measures should be taken promptly to suspected MERS victims at the airport in order to avoid the disease from spread, said the department.

The centre has currently set up two measure body temperatures at the airport.

According to Head of the Preventive Health Department Tran Dac Phu, no case of MERS-CoV has been detected in Vietnam, so far.

The country is working with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and international organisations to keep strict monitoring of agents causing the disease, Phu said.

From September 2012 to date, WHO has been informed of a total of 496 laboratory-confirmed cases of infections with MERS-CoV worldwide.

The organisation encouraged all its member nations to continue their surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections and to carefully review any unusual patterns.-VNA