Vietnam steps up Ebola response

(VOVworld) – The Emergency Operation Centre of the Vietnamese Health Ministry held an emergency meeting this week to review Ebola preventative measures in Vietnam with experts from the World Health Organisation, the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Vietnam steps up Ebola response - ảnh 1
Leaders of the Vietnamese Health Ministry and Hanoi's people committee examine preventative measures at Noi Bai international airport.

A CDC expert said there is no evidence yet that Ebola can be transmitted except by direct contact with body fluids, adding that the recent case of an American nurse infected by Ebola while treating an Ebola patient was probably due to negligence or not following proper procedures. The experts agreed that the Ministry should review its entire Ebola preventative program, including scanning at border gates of passengers coming from 6 West African countries—Congo, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Senegal. A WHO expert said that with support from the WHO and Japan, Vietnam can carry out its own Ebola tests. The WHO announced Tuesday that the death rate of Ebola infections in West Africa has increased to 70 per cent. Bruce Aylward, the WHO’s Assistant Director-General, told the press in Geneva that with this momentum the Ebola death toll could reach 5,000 to 10,000 per week by the beginning of December. The latest WHO statistics indicate that 4,447 people have died out of some 9,000 infections since the outbreak began.

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