Passengers walk past a device installed to check body temperature at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCMC.

Health authorities are scrambling to implement precautionary measures against a new type of H1N1 swine flu that has killed at least 81 people in Mexico and infected around a dozen in the US.

He instructed the border quarantine agencies, National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology and the Pasteur Institute to quarantine any suspected cases.

Foreign hospitals in Vietnam have been instructed to report cases resembling swine flu.

The health ministry’s Preventive Health Bureau held a meeting with pandemic experts in Hanoi Sunday to discuss emergency preventive measures against the disease.

A representative of World Health Organization (WHO) Vietnam warned participants at the meeting that the H1N1 strain of swine flu virus in Mexico and the US is highly dangerous since it appears to be transmitted between humans.

Nguyen Huy Nga, head of the Preventive Health Bureau, said the new strain is a combination of a virus found in Europe, North America and Asia and the bird flu and human influenza viruses.

It appears to infect humans and could spread rapidly, he warned, adding there is no vaccine yet against it.

In 1918, a strain of H1N1 swine flu virus, known as Spanish flu, spread widely and killed millions of people around the world, he said.

Nga reported that while Vietnamese institutes can test for the previous strain of H1N1 virus, tests for the new strain would have to be done in foreign countries.

At Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport, health agencies Sunday began to measure the temperatures of passengers arriving on certain flights to prevent possible swine flu cases.

The city Department of Health convened an emergency meeting to discuss further measures to contain the disease. It was attended by experts from the HCMC International Health Quarantine Center, Center for Preventive Health, animal health agencies and hospitals.

“The spread of the disease by travelers is possible since HCMC welcomes a large number of international visitors every day,” Nguyen Van Chau, director of the Department of Health, said.

“The city must take immediate measures to prevent and cope with the dangerous disease.”

He instructed local agencies and hospitals to draft a plan to combat the possible spread of the disease.

Reports must be submitted every day on medical checks at ports and preventive and treatment facilities must be ready with sufficient equipment and medicine, he said.

Authorities are facing difficulties in monitoring the new virus since they are still preoccupied with human cases of H5N1 bird flu in some northern and southwestern provinces.

Information should be disseminated to help people take preventive measures against the disease, he said.

Dr. Phan Van Nghiem of the city’s Department of Health said the Children Hospital No. 1, Children Hospital No.2, Pham Ngoc Thach and HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases are prepared to fight the possible spread of swine flu.

The department’s deputy director, Le Truong Giang, said screening of arriving travelers would focus on flights from the US and Canada and those transiting in Mexico.

He instructed preventive health agencies to resume monitoring of the pandemic and immediately report any suspicious cases.

Hoang Ngoc Hung of the HCMC International Health Quarantine Center said his agency has stationed more employees for screening visitors coming into the country.

The department instructed hospitals to set up taskforces to detect the disease and be ready to support nearby provinces.

Phan Xuan Thao, deputy head of the Animal Health Agency, said there have been no reports in the city of pigs being infected with the H1N1 virus and said his agency would take samples for testing whenever animals show symptoms of swine flu.

Reported by Nam Son - Thanh Tung