Health screening equipment at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City Tuesday.

Vietnam raised its swine flu alert to level 4 Tuesday, warning that the threat of “community level outbreaks” could rise at anytime.

The country may close certain public places and limit travel to and from infected zones, said Nguyen Huy Nga, head of the Health Ministry’s Department for Preventive Health.

Swine flu has killed at least 152 people in Mexico and international news agencies report that 50 cases are now under investigation in the US.

Nga said at least 200 Vietnamese had returned from the US over the past several days while about 10 had just flown in from Mexico, according VietNamNet online newspaper reports. The 10 from Mexico are now being monitored by local health agencies.

The reports said most of those who had returned from the US arrived before the outbreak and had not undergone testing.

At a meeting in Hanoi Tuesday held by the national steering board to tackle the human flu pandemic, Health Minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu said the Examination and Treatment Management Department had been instructed to implement all WHO recommendations and ensure that all hospitals were in compliance.

“All medical equipment should be checked and medicine and decontaminants must be made available,” he said.

Nga urged residents not to travel to the US or Mexico and asked those retuning from these places to monitor their health closely.

Nguyen Tran Hien, director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, said scientists at the institute were able to identify the new strain of H1N1 swine flu virus.

Vietnam has the advantage of 15 influenza monitoring stations that were set up two years ago with the support of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDC).

Inspections

Officials from the Health Ministry and health authorities in Ho Chi Minh City inspected the screening of arriving travelers at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport Tuesday.

Tran Thanh Duong, deputy head of the Department for Preventive Health and Environment, instructed the screening teams to quarantine those with suspicious symptoms and take them to hospitals for examination.

He recommended that health authorities work to inform the media of all preventive measures in an effort to raise public awareness.

Residents should not be overanxious and stop eating pork, he said, because the virus dies when cooked at temperatures more than or equal to 70 degrees Celsius.

The Ho Chi Minh City International Health Quarantine Center reported Tuesday it had checked an average of 7,000 travelers arriving in the city per day since news of the outbreaks broke earlier this week. It has reported no out of the ordinary symptoms yet.

The Animal Health Department Tuesday instructed animal health agencies to strictly inspect imported animals and meat and report any suspicious cases while also implementing quarantine and decontaminant measures.

The department said no pigs in Vietnam had been infected with the H1N1 swine influenza virus so far.

Bloomberg reported that Vietnam’s government said it has no plan to ban imports of pork from North America.

“There isn’t any scientific evidence that the swine flu virus has come from pork, so there’s no justifiable reason for a ban,” Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Cao Duc Phat was quoted as saying, citing reports from the World Organization for Animal Health and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Local measures

Hanoi will earmark VND6 billion (US$337,700) for precautionary measures against swine flu, the city Health Department director Le Anh Tuan said Tuesday.

Hanoi Pharmaceutical and Medical Equipment Joint Stock Company has been assigned to prepare a stock of Tamiflu.

More officials from the city Health Department and International Health Quarantine Center have been positioned at the Noi Bai International Airport in the capital to measure the temperatures of passengers, especially those coming from the US and Mexico.

As more people travel over the Liberation Day weekend, the airport has set up an isolated room with necessary medical equipment to treat any passenger found with the swine flu virus right away, Tuan said.

The Hanoi Preventive Health Center will train city health officials about how to deal with swine flu outbreaks while Dong Da Hospital will provide treatment to any patients suspected of having swine flu.

Tuan advised people to avoid close contact with people that have coughs or fevers. He said everyone should wash their hands before meals.

As of Tuesday evening, the International Health Quarantine Center had sent officials and tools to measure passengers’ temperatures at Da Nang International Airport and Tien Sa Port, the third largest seaport in Vietnam after those in Ho Chi Minh City and Hai Phong.

Animal health officials of the Health Ministry in Da Nang have cooperated with Da Nang Customs to test shipments of animal products before they are imported to the country.

Authorities in Can Tho, the de facto capital city of the Mekong Delta, have focused on checking import shipments at Can Tho Harbor.

Flu patients in the area have been isolated for special observation and testing.

Reported by Thanh Nien staff (With additional reporting from VNA)