Illustrative image (Source: Internet) Lao Cai tightened cross-border poultry trading while staff of the agriculture,health and customs sectors as well as the border force have been mobilised tojoin the preventive work.
Tran Duc Hung, Deputy Director of the province’s Centre for International HealthQuarantine, said relevant agencies have closely monitored people who enter or exit Vietnam from affectedareas.
Display screens and posters were erected in border areas between the two countries,providing information related to avian influenza, thus raising public awarenessof the danger and symptoms of the disease.
Chemicals were also sprayed in high-risk areas, vaccinations for poultry weredistributed and smuggling andillegal poultry trading were cracked down on.
In LangSon, regulations on quarantine and health examination were strictly conducted toearly detect H7N9 suspected cases.
The province’s Centre for InternationalHealth Quarantine mobilised more personnel and installed body temperaturemonitoring equipment at border gates.
People who enter or exit Vietnam through thegates have been provided with advice on disease prevention measures.
Medicine and isolation wards have also been prepared at border gates in case ofdetecting persons with symptoms related to the influenza strains.
Statistics show that about 130,000 people entered Vietnam through border gatesin Lang Son since the beginning of February.
Sharing a 253km land border with China, Lang Sonhas two international border gates (Huu Nghi and Dong Dang), two nationalborder gates (Chi Ma and Binh Nghi), and several auxiliary ports of entry,through which thousands of people enter Vietnam every day, posing a high riskof disease transmission.
The World Health Organisation said the A/H7N9virus is raging in 14 provinces and cities of China with a sharp rise inincidences and a high mortality rate (about 40 percent). From October 6, 2016,to February 19 this year, China recorded 425 people with A/H7N9, mostly inYunnan and Guangxi provinces which border Vietnam.
In 2016, Vietnam recorded A/H5N1 outbreaks inpoultry in seven communes and wards of six districts and townships in Nghe Anprovince, Ca Mau province and Can Tho city. There haven’t been any A/H5N1outbreaks in 2017, according to the Preventive Medicine Department under theMinistry of Health.
The flu viruses of A/H7N9 and A/H5N1 have yet tobe reported in humans in Vietnam.-VNA
VNA
