February 17, 2012

Vietnam affirms first swine flu case

The first case of human infection of H3N2 flu virus, which originated from pigs, has been confirmed in Vietnam February 15, the Health Ministry's Preventive Medicine Department said.

The patient, a two-year-old girl from the southern province of Long An was found by the national flu monitoring system in April 2011 and cured at the Children's Hospital No one. in Ho Chi Minh City.

The test results of the HCM City Pasteur Institute were confirmed on January 10, 2012, by the WHO laboratory at the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Since last April, the ministry has boosted efforts for early detection and monitoring of any new human infection cases, and joined hands with the WHO Office in Vietnam to conduct epidemiological investigation into such first case.

Tran Thanh Duong, deputy head of the department said the situation is not alarming as the virus has low toxicity and shows no sign of transmission between humans, adding that Vietnam has not detected any new case of A/H3N2 infection in humans since April 2011.

Given the outbreaks of bird flu in several localities, the ministry warned that the virus A/H5N1 has spread its wings to 10 localities nationwide, including Ha Tinh, Kien Giang, Thai Nguyen, Bac Giang, Thanh Hoa, Quang Tri, Soc Trang, Ha Nam, Hai Duong and Haiphong

It recommended people to eat well-cooked poultry meat and take active prevention measures to stop the flu transmitting from animals to humans as well as to visit the nearest clinic as soon as possible if detecting any flu symptoms after contact with fowl or pigs.