Vietnam will continue its efforts and cooperation with the international community to prevent and respond to the H5N1 flu and strive to stamp out the lethal virus in the next 2-3 years.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Bui Ba Bong made the statement at a press briefing in Hanoi on April 21 after the conclusion of the 2010 International Ministerial Conference on Animal and Pandemic Influenza.

Bong said Vietnam will try to prevent human transmission of the H5N1 or Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza virus.

He added that Vietnam ’s unrelenting efforts in the combat against bird flu over the past 7 years has been widely commended by the international community.

Vietnam has basically got the pandemic under control, with a few scattered sites still found to be infected across the country, the deputy minister confirmed.

He informed the press of the Hanoi Declaration that was approved the same day by ministers and senior officials from over 70 countries participating in the conference.

The declaration proposes a multi-sector array of national measures to promptly detect new diseases that may cross from animals to humans and quickly deploy public health measures against outbreaks.

It calls for focused action at the interface between human, animal and environmental health systems, as well as continued efforts to reduce the extent of H5N1 and H1N1.

Within the conference’s framework, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the US Centre for Disease Control earlier signed a Letter of Intent on strengthening activities related to influenza and other animal - human diseases.

According to the document, the US will provide 160,000 USD for projects studying the influenza pathways between humans, poultry, and pigs./