A student is quarantined at the Ngo Thoi Nhiem High School in Ho Chi Minh City

International experts have said Vietnam has been quick to detect and control the spread of the H1N1 virus but should do much more to keep people updated and aware of ways to prevent and fight the flu.

As around 700 students of the school had returned to other localities for the summer vacation, health authorities are worried about potential outbreaks in these provinces, including Binh Duong that neighbors HCMC, and Lam Dong and Khanh Hoa in the central region.

The Ngo Thoi Nhiem Private High School in District 9 was shut down last Sunday after several students and teachers tested positive for the virus.

Authorities in concerned provinces have been provided with the names, addresses and phone numbers of the school students who live in their areas.

Lam Dong Province on Tuesday and Wednesday reported three students of the school who had returned home had tested positive for the virus. Another student in nearby Khanh Hoa Province has also tested positive.

Dr. Phan Van Nghiem of the HCMC Health Department said 10 students of the school who were being treated at the city Tropical Diseases Hospital have recovered.

They will be sent back to be treated for one more week by doctors based at the school today, Nghiem said.

Several schools in Singapore and Thailand have been shut down as the flu spread but the students can continue their courses through the Internet.

One student at international university RMIT in HCMC has also tested positive for the flu and been quarantined while health officials are monitoring 20 classmates of the student.

The department Wednesday found 20 more cases of the flu, besides the students.

As of Wednesday the city had detected 337 people with H1N1, 269 of whom have fully recovered. The national tally has gone up to 475, according to the Health Ministry.

The health department has asked the city People’s Committee to establish six observation teams at schools, dormitories and industrial zones in the city.

Keito Nakamura, a health professor from a Japanese college, told an Asia-Pacific conference in Hue Wednesday that Vietnam has been quick to detect and control the spread of the flu but was not doing well in updating people and instructing them on how to prevent and fight the disease.

The Singaporean government has spent a lot of money to provide information about the flu through newspapers, television, mobile phones, websites, blogs, Youtube, Facebook and even sent letters to each family, Prof. Vijaya from the Singapore Health Education Agency said at the conference.

As the spread of influenza A (H1N1) in Vietnam on Monday was confirmed to have expanded to the community level, the HCMC Health Department has stepped up surveillance in the community.

The department has also called for several measures to fight the spread of the flu including improved management of cases in order to spread the workload evenly and effectively among hospitals.

The Health Ministry is training health officials in cities and provinces nationwide to perform tests in their areas and treat ‘light’ cases.

The World Health Organization has given Vietnam 500 kits to carry out quick tests for the virus.

Vaccine on the way

Officials of the Ministry of Science and Technology Wednesday asked the ministry to approve two national research projects for producing a vaccine for the H1N1 virus.

The Vaccine and Bio-Technology Products No. 1 Company (VABIOTECH) under the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology and the Institute of Vaccine and Biological Substances (IVAC) in Nha Trang – have received the pure H1N1 virus from the WHO for producing the vaccines.

The IVAC has since 2006 been receiving WHO support to produce a vaccine for the bird flu.

The institute’s Director Nguyen Van Hiep said once the bird flu vaccine was developed, the institute will start work on the vaccine for swine flu, as the H1N1 is also known.

VABIOTECH has tested its bird flu vaccine on more than 200 people and this will provide good conditions to produce a vaccine for the influenza A H1N1 virus, said the company Director Thu Van.

The Hungarian government Wednesday announced that mass-production of antiviral drugs to combat swine flu could begin in September, the AFP reported.

Four million doses would be available by October, the newswire cited government spokesman Domokos Szollar as saying after the announcement.

According to the European Center of Disease Control and Prevention, 813 people have so far died worldwide of the swine flu. The WHO has announced that it has stopped updating figures as the disease was spreading very rapidly.

Source: TN, VNA