Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long has paid a visit to Noi Bai International Airport to check measures taken in response to a deadly outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV).
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| A staff member is checking tourists' body temperature at a int'l quarantine centre in Lang Son. |
Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long has paid a visit to Noi Bai International Airport to check measures taken in response to a deadly outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV).
He applauded the airport's preparedness, especially the requirement that all passengers arriving from MERS-CoV affected regions should fill in health declaration forms and go through the thermal camera system, which monitors body heat.
"I'm convinced that Vietnam will be able to prevent the outbreak of MERS-CoV epidemic in the country," said the deputy health minister on June 3 afternoon.
A representative of the Hanoi Health Department's Centre for International Health and Quarantine said, "The centre has prepared a plan to intensify the measures to detect any case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, which is caused by a novel Corona virus, at Noi Bai International Airport."
The Deputy Health Minister on June 3 also discussed with the ministry's Emergency Operation Centre the steps to be taken to prevent MERS-CoV from entering Vietnam.
Long said the ministry will closely coordinate with the National Administration of Tourism to update people travelling through international borders and airports [about MERS-CoV].
"The ministry will soon take measures to guide Vietnamese working in affected countries, including in the Middle East, to keep themselves safe from contracting the virus," Long revealed.
MERS-CoV, first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012, belongs to a family of corona viruses including SARS, which haunted Asia in 2003.
The disease can spread between people and causes fevers, breathing problems, pneumonia and kidney failure.
The mortality rate of those infected with the virus is about 51 percent. No vaccine is currently available.
The Ministry of Health said MERS-CoV has so far spread to 26 countries with 1,179 patients, 442 of whom have died.
In Asia, four countries have recorded MERS-CoV cases are the Philippines, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea and China.
(Source: VNA)
