The health ministry on Monday announced 14 local laboratories were eligible to conduct influenza A H1N1 tests to deal with increasing demand.

“The influenza A (H1N1) virus now is found in 70-80 percent of flu patients,” Ly Ngoc Kinh, director general of the ministry’s Medical Treatment Department said in a recent interview with local newspaper Lao Dong.

He said, “In terms of efficiency, it is not necessary to conduct tests to sort out two to three negative cases out of ten flu patients, and then give treatment to the remaining, as there is no shortage of Tamiflu.”

Asked about the shortage of H1N1 biological reagents at several local testing centers, the official said the supply of testing agents in Vietnam, which had mainly come through the sponsorship of the World Health Organization and some other organizations, was running out now.

To have more reagents, tenders had to be put out for suppliers to bid on, but “we still won’t buy much,” Kinh said.

So far two major testing centers in the southern and central regions – Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute and Nha Trang Pasteur Institute - have halted H1N1 tests because they have run out of reagents.

Home treatment

Meanwhile, several localities have started offering home treatment for swine flu patients, to lessen overloading at local hospitals.

“Under the ministry’s guidelines, patients with flu symptoms in Hue city City now receive home treatment with health workers monitoring them,” said Nguyen Dung, director of the central province of Thua Thien – Hue’s Health Department.

Nguyen Ngoc Kinh, head of the Hanoi-based National Institute of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, said all patients with mild or suspicious symptoms coming to his institute now are given the antiviral drug and sent home for treatment.

They are only admitted to the hospital if and when any problems emerge, he said.

Also on Monday the ministry officially confirmed two more deaths related to H1N1 – one in HCMC and the other in the central province of Thanh Hoa – increasing the country’s death toll to 20 since the first flu patient was detected in May.

So far Vietnam has recorded 9,608 H1N1 infections in 59 out of its 63 provinces and cities, including 46 new ones on Monday. Of these, 1,127 are still being treated, while others have been discharged after full recovery.

Source: Tuoi Tre, VNA, Lao Dong