Vietnam - US co-operate on emergency response drill

The rehearsal is aimed at assisting local hospitals and residents in improving response capacity in common disasters in coastal areas.

The scenario today: a 15-metre tsunami heading for Da Nang City. An emergency warning is issued, and immediately, hospital ship USNS Mercy is prepared for search and rescue efforts.

A field hospital quickly provides first aids for the injured, and the critically injured are transferred to the hospital ship to be treated.

The goal of this drill is to train local search and rescue forces and hospitals to adopt rapid-response measures should disasters occur. Vietnamese medical staff also learned about fast, new techniques to treat their patients.

The Pacific Partnership is the largest annual multilateral humanitarian-assistance and disaster-relief preparedness mission in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, founded by the US. As part of PP15, medical professionals will also share expertise in medical topics such as dermatology, orthopaedic surgery, plastic surgery, physical medicine and rehabilitation, physical therapy, and occupational therapy.