Vietnam opens first airborne infection isolation room
The Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi opened Vietnam’s first negative pressure isolation room Friday to treat persons with a suspected or confirmed airborne infectious disease.
The US$300,000 facility, paid for by Oxford University, includes a ventilation system that generates negative pressure to allow air to flow into the isolation room but not escape from the room, as air will naturally flow from areas with higher pressure to areas with lower pressure, thereby preventing contaminated air from flowing to other parts of the hospital.
Such isolation rooms are expected to be built at the Central Children’s Hospital in Hanoi, Children’s Hospitals No.1, No.2, and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City.
The first patient treated at the new room was discharged on Friday.
Trung Van Hoa, 22, from the northern province of Bac Kan was admitted to the hospital 42 days ago. He was then found to be infected with the H5N1 avian flu virus.
The man’s case was one of the most serious H5N1-infected cases recorded in Vietnam, the hospital said.
Construction of Vietnam-Cambodia joint hospital starts
Construction of the Cho Ray – Phnom Penh multiclinic hospital, a joint project between Vietnam’s Saigon Medical Investment Joint Stock company and Sokimex company of Cambodia was started on May 15.
The US$42 million hospital covers an area of 50,000 sq.m in Meanchey district, around ten km from Phnom Penh with 500 beds.
Speaking at the ground breaking ceremony, Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong said the project is new, vivid evidence of the good neighbourly ties and time-honoured friendship between Vietnam and Cambodia.
After coming into operation, the hospital will help improve health care services for Phnom Penh city dwellers in particular and the Cambodian people in general, Mr Trong added.
The hospital is expected to be complete in the next two years and create employment for more than 300 people.
Cambodian PM Hun Sen also praised the project and the cooperation of the Vietnamese government and Ho Chi Minh authorities to realize it. The hospital not only helps Cambodian people save money and time that they would have had to spend on treatment abroad, but also create an opportunity for local doctors to work with their peers at Cho Ray hospital in Ho Chi Minh city, thereby improving their professional skills, he added.
Earlier on May 14, the Vietnamese-invested Bank of Investment and Development of Cambodia (BIDC) handed over a floating school on Bien Ho lake to overseas Vietnamese living in Chhnok Trou commune, Boribo district of Kampong Chhnang province.
Family killer caught before serial murders
Police in Hanoi on Wednesday arrested a man who had allegedly killed his aunt and was planning to murder several other family members.
Dang Tuan Dung, 26, killed his aunt Dang Thi Chung, 58, in Hanoi on Saturday last week with three knife stabs in her abdomen, investigators said.
Police on that day found a plan handwritten by Dung plotting to kill another aunt, his uncle, who lived nearby, his sister and his brother-in-law.
Dung was caught when hiding in Binh Duong Province, which neighbors Ho Chi Minh City.
Dung’s mother was not on the to-be-killed list but had been beaten by her son so many times that she had to leave the family, local newswire Dan Tri reported Sunday.
Dung once threatened his uncle with a knife to his side for preventing him from looking for money his mother had earned selling land, the newswire said. The uncle then had to beg for his life from his knees.
According to the uncle, Dung stabbed his late father Dang Hung Cuong in the eye with a screw.
Dung is now jobless. He had recently brought a girlfriend home to live with him without a marriage or his family’s permission. Relatives said that when his family disagreed with the decision he only hated them more.
The family had several times asked local police to take Dung to a social rehabilitation center.
Eco-friendly items on display in Malaysia
Many of Vietnam’s latest technological innovations, especially environmentally friendly ones, are on display at the International Innovations and Technology Exhibition (ITEX) 2010 in Kuala Lumpur from May 14-16.
The ITEX 2010 is showcasing 673 new products in 24 areas developed by scientists from various countries and territories, including Malaysia, Vietnam, Russia, Iran, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Among the products, clay bricks and tiles by the Viglacera Ha Long company of Vietnam drew a great deal of attention for their production lines using carbon capture and storage technology, and therefore saving energy, protecting the environment and reducing production costs.
The Sai Gon Packaging Joint Stock Company brought to the exposition new wrapping materials that are produced without Ethyl Acetate, a harmful solvent. The new technology is also more cost effective and friendly to the environment.
The fair also devotes space to many Vietnamese pharmaceutical products and robots made by two young Vietnamese students – Phan Van Mau and Phan Van Nam, who were born in 1992.
Le Duy Tien, Director of the Vietnam Fund for Scientific and Technological Creations (VIFOTEC), took the occasion to invite all ITEX participants this year to join the international exhibition on youth innovations 20010 (IEYI 2010) that is slated for December 15-18 in Hanoi.
Japanese bank grants scholarships to Vietnamese students
A total of 38 students from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have won SMBC Global Foundation scholarships funded by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), a leading commercial bank in Japan and worldwide.
Of the recipients, five students participating in the programme will receive scholarships worth US$1,500 each and the remainder will get scholarships worth US$200 each.
They are outstanding students from Hanoi National University, HCM City National University, Hanoi University, HCM City Economics University and Foreign Trade University.
The award ceremony took place on May 14 in Hanoi and is slated for May 25 in HCM City.
Established on April 1994 by SMBC Capital Markets. Inc, an SMBC subsidiary, the fund has granted numerous scholarships to students from 25 schools in Asia, including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. This is the fourth consecutive year the programme has been carried out in Vietnam.
Reburial service for Vietnamese martyrs in Hue city
On May 15, the Ministry of Defence, Military Zone 4, and the Thua Thien-Hue Provincial People’s Committee held a reburial service for the remains of 21 martyrs who fought as volunteers in Laos.
Ngo Hoa, vice chairman of Thua Thien – Hue provincial People’s Committee praised the sacrifices of thousands of Vietnamese volunteers that have been reburied in their homeland so far.
Senior lieutenant Nguyen Van Piu, member of search team 192 said over 200 days of searching his team found the remains of 22 martyrs, one of whom was reburied at his birthplace in Tu Liem, Hanoi.
Since its establishment, the team has gathered the remains of more than 400 martyrs. This coming dry season, it will look for the remains of Vietnamese voluntary soldiers who laid down their lives on Khung mountain in Sekong province, Laos.
Uncle Ho’s birthday celebrated in Pakistan
President Ho Chi Minh carried the torch of the struggle for national independence through several eras.
Professor Husain Ahmad Piracha said this at a ceremony to celebrate President Ho Chi Minh’s 120th birthday at the Islamabad International Islamic University in the presence of Pakistani Minister of Information Technology & Telecommunications, Dr. Mohammad Azam Khan Swati, Southeast Asian ambassadors to Pakistan and professors and students at the university.
Professor Piracha declared that Ho Chi Minh’s statement “Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom” is still valuable for countries that are still striving for peace and development.
Speaking at the celebration, Minister Mohammad Azam Khan Swati highlighted President Ho Chi Minh’s unyielding revolutionary life, will, and humanitarianism.
Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Viet Hung reviewed President Ho Chi Minh’s achievements in the cause of independence and freedom of his fatherland as well as Vietnamese people’s love for him.
Uncle Ho was an outstanding political leader, who led a very simple life and was always close to the common people, said Hung.
Mistaken for love rival, schoolboy stabbed to death by peers
A 16-year-old student in the central province of Binh Dinh was stabbed to death by his peers on Friday after he was mistaken for the love rival of another schoolboy.
At 11:30 a.m., Hoang Viet Quang, a tenth-grade student at Nguyen Thai Hoc High School, was walking by Dong Da Secondary School in Quy Nhon Town when he was suddenly attacked by a group of nine students.
15-year-old Nguyen Quoc Cuong, a member of the gang, knifed Quang to death.
The group fled the scene on motorbikes but four of them were apprehended by residents and the police soon after.
Cuong told the police his group, including 15-year-old Phan Hoai Hao, decided to teach Bui Le Lam Dong a lesson because he was dating with Hao’s girlfriend. However, the group mistook Quang for Dong, according to Cuong.
Cuong, Hao, and most of other boys in the group are students of Tay Son Secondary School. Dong is also studying at the school.
Quang died of bloodloss not long after being admitted to the Binh Dinh Province General Hospital.
Two boys drown at construction site
Two 13-year-old boys drowned at an excavation site in the central-coast resort town of Phan Thiet on Friday.
According to rescuers at Doi Duong beach, Nguyen Minh Thanh and Pham Hoang Khang were found dead in a three-meter-deep hole dug for the construction of a dyke.
The hole, located at the seashore, is usually buried under sea when the tide is high, but the contractor, Thai Binh Company headquartered in the northern city of Hai Phong, didn’t erect any signboards, local people said.
After the incident the company sent a bulldozer to fill the excavation.
Rescuers said a few days ago they had rescued five local students who also fell into the hole.
Southern worker killed in concrete mixer
A concrete mixing machine. A worker in Binh Duong was killed by one like such on Wednesday when coming inside to check it and it rotated.
A construction worker in Binh Duong Province was killed Wednesday after a seemlingly broken concrete mixer began spinning with him inside it, local newswire Vnexpress said Friday.
Dinh Van Tu, 32, was killed on the spot.
Tu was using a pipe to clean the mixer at Song Than 3 Industrial Zone not far from Ho Chi Minh City.
He had it spinning to save time.
Then it stopped, so Tu went into the machine to check it but didn’t manage to escape fast enough when it suddenly began rotating again. The machine crushed his bones and internal organs.
Doctor, nurses attacked with tear gas in central Vietnam
A doctor and three nurses were attacked with tear gas at a hospital in the central province of Nghe An on Friday morning, local news website Vietnamnet reported.
Nguyen Thi My Hoa, one of the victims, said the four were working in the Vinh Hospital of Transport’s blood dialysis room when two men in black came, asking to meet Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Lan.
When Lan asked them to enter the room, the strange men sprayed them with tear gas, affecting ten patients as well, the nurse told Vietnamnet.
Local newspaper Tuoi Tre quoted an unnamed source as saying that Lan had received threatening text messages last week. The doctor then reported the threats to local police and took a leave until Friday.
Police have launched an investigation into the case.
PV
