Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung chaired an emergency meeting with the National Steering Committee on Human Influenza Prevention on June 12, requesting all sectors to make more effort and take immediate measures to combat A/H1N1flu from spreading throughout Vietnam.

Later the same day, Health Minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu issued a report on the flu situation in Vietnam to every organisation and agency in the country from central to local level.

By 18.00 local time, Vietnam had confirmed 26 cases of A/H1N1 in HCM City , Hanoi and the provinces of Dong Nai and Tien Giang. The first case was reported on May 31.

In Ho Chi Minh City , 23 flu cases were reported by 17.00 (local time) on June 12. Eight patients have now recovered and have been discharged from hospitals.

Nineteen cases were people returning from the US , one was a passenger from Australia , while the remaining three caught the virus through contact with a patient.

The Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang where a case of A/H1N1 flu has been reported, on June 12, urgently set up two preventive teams in each hospital and has supplied an additional 5 billion VND for epidemic prevention work.

The World Health Organisation on June 11 declared flu A (H1N1) a pandemic, raising its alert to the maximum level six. A total of 74 countries are now affected by the virus./.