Vietnamese laboratories are about to run out of supplies needed to test for the H1N1 influeza A virus.

The ministry’s Preventive Health and Environment Department has been allocated VND6 billion (US$336,605) to buy more reagents, but it will take at least two months for a new supply to be available in Vietnam due to the bidding process.

In meantime, late last month Deputy Minister of Health Trinh Quan Huan said the Institute of Biotechnology was cooperating with the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City to develop reagents. The new materials are expected to be in use in five months’ time.

Nguyen Huy Nga, head of the Preventive Health and Environment Department, said Vietnam conducts around 1,000 tests for the influenza A virus every week.

So far 12,000 H1N1 tests worth some VND12 billion (US$673,325) in total have been performed nationwide, Nga said, adding that most of the reagents were given to Vietnam by the World Health Organization and the US’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Also on Monday, the preventive health department reported that another 141 people had tested positive for the H1N1 virus in Vietnam, increasing the country’s tally to 3,777.

Three people infected with the disease in Vietnam have died, while 1,645 have been discharged after full recoveries.

Source: Thanh Nien, Tuoi Tre