The US government will provide Vietnam with more than 11,000 sets of personal protective equipment and four laboratory kits to help health workers respond quickly to potential new outbreaks of H1N1 influenza.

According to the US Embassy’s Press Release on March 22, the assistance package, valued at over 100,000 USD and implemented by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), comes at the request of Vietnam’s Ministry of Health with technical support from the World Health Organisation.

These supplies will be sent to regional hygiene and epidemiology institutes and Pasteur Institutes and provinces most at risk of bird flu or in greatest need of the supplies, which include such items as protective suits, masks, gloves, infection testing swabs.

The protective gear is intended for use in high-risk provinces to prevent human exposure to the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus.

The gear will limit the risk of animal-to-human and human-to-human infections during human case detection and treatment, outbreak investigations and response as well as other activities.

The package of materials will help protect health care workers and others involved in the prevention and response of H5N1 or other pandemic threats at health facilities and in communities in Vietnam.

Since 2005, the US Government has provided more than 50 million USD to support Vietnam’s programmes to combat avian influenza./.