Vietnam - Emergency operations centre launched by NIHE

Delegates cut the ribbon to launch an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) at The National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology today in Hà Nội.— VNA/VNS Photo

The National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) launched an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) at a ceremony today in Hà Nội.

The ceremony was attended by Deputy Minister of Health Nguyễn Thanh Long, Director of NIHE Đặng Đức Anh, Acting Deputy Secretary of the US Department of Human and Health Services Mary Wakefield, US Ambassador to Việt Nam Ted Osius and representatives of NGOs.

The EOC-NIHE is a cooperation project between Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and NIHE, under technical and financial support from the US government for Việt Nam to enhance detection and response capacities corresponding to global health threats.

This support is under the scope of the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) following CDC’s initiative since June 2014, and has until now reached 50 nations worldwide. The programme includes 11 discreet GHSA Action Packages toward three goals -- Prevention, Detection and Response.

The establishment of EOC-NIHE is the second major milestone in the roadmap of establishing an EOC network in Việt Nam, which aims to collect epidemic data from various sources, analyse the data and set up corresponding plans in case of an epidemic emergency situation.

EOC-NIHE is responsible for collecting epidemic data from 28 northern provinces of Việt Nam to build a national epidemic data source and provide warnings in case of abnormal occurrence of diseases. EOC-NIHE also connects with international EOCs worldwide, such as CDC Atlanta, WHO Western Pacific Region.

Along with facilities and technical support from CDC and other international organisations, EOC-NIHE will enhance NIHE’s capacity in data management, with the most updated and timely data, which will serve as the foundation for Việt Nam to respond to public health events in an appropriate manner.

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Cambodia - Cambodian Zika Fears Prompt US Travel Warning

The U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) issued a travel notice on Thursday advising pregnant women to consider putting off travel to Cambodia because of possible complications from the Zika virus, though it has been six years since an infection was reported in the country.

“CDC recommends pregnant women should consider postponing non-essential travel to Southeast Asia countries with reports of Zika virus infection from local transmission or related to travel to those countries,” the advisory says.

The notice also covers Thailand, Vietnam and eight other Asian countries. The mosquito-borne and sexually transmitted virus, which can cause severe birth defects, has spread throughout the region over the past two months.

Still, the advisory notes that the “level of this risk is unknown and likely lower than in areas where Zika virus is newly introduced and spreading widely.”

The Ministry of Health could not be reached for comment on Friday. Ministry spokesman Ly Sovann said last month that the country had not reported a new case since 2010, but was not taking any chances.

“The Ministry of Health has fumigated all over cities and provinces across the country,” he said. The ministry has also launched an educational campaign on the virus using vehicles mounted with loudspeakers and banners.

Ben Paviour and Chhorn Phearun 

cambodiadaily

You can find older posts regarding ASEAN politics and economics news at SBC blog, and older posts regarding health and healthcare at IIMS blog. I thank you.