The US Pacific Command sent experts to a workshop in Ho Chi Minh City on August 23 to help Vietnam improve its civil training and planning against epidemics to international standards.
Representatives from military medical units and medical services of all 63 provinces and cities worked with US experts in practising how to make emergency plans, conduct surveys, respond quickly and forecast community recovery after epidemics.
The workshop also discussed measures that might increase military participation in Government plans against epidemics, including the possible third wave of H1N1 virus, which hit the world in early 2009.
US military expert Andrew Bates presented a series of plans of military and civil cooperation in epidemic control, with the H1N1 pandemic at the core.
He said these plans would be used to fight other contagious diseases which might hit Vietnam and the world.
The multi-industrial plans that will draw military and civil participation aim to support the Government in epidemic control and mitigate impacts on certain industries, he explained.
The workshop also discussed emerging viruses, vaccines, policies, non-drug interventions and personal protective suits and equipment.
The experts discussed responses to the special demands of ordinary people affected by an epidemic, treatment of bodies of the dead and settlement to those who are expelled or refugees in case the epidemic is widespread.
Colonel Vu Quoc Binh, Deputy Chief of the Military Medicine Department, said wherever pandemics happen the military always occupies the vanguard in medical treatment as well as in overcoming any aftermath. The military also plays a key role in curbing natural epidemics./.
Representatives from military medical units and medical services of all 63 provinces and cities worked with US experts in practising how to make emergency plans, conduct surveys, respond quickly and forecast community recovery after epidemics.
The workshop also discussed measures that might increase military participation in Government plans against epidemics, including the possible third wave of H1N1 virus, which hit the world in early 2009.
US military expert Andrew Bates presented a series of plans of military and civil cooperation in epidemic control, with the H1N1 pandemic at the core.
He said these plans would be used to fight other contagious diseases which might hit Vietnam and the world.
The multi-industrial plans that will draw military and civil participation aim to support the Government in epidemic control and mitigate impacts on certain industries, he explained.
The workshop also discussed emerging viruses, vaccines, policies, non-drug interventions and personal protective suits and equipment.
The experts discussed responses to the special demands of ordinary people affected by an epidemic, treatment of bodies of the dead and settlement to those who are expelled or refugees in case the epidemic is widespread.
Colonel Vu Quoc Binh, Deputy Chief of the Military Medicine Department, said wherever pandemics happen the military always occupies the vanguard in medical treatment as well as in overcoming any aftermath. The military also plays a key role in curbing natural epidemics./.
