No new cases of H5N1 bird flu in humans reported since 2014

Việt Nam had reported no new human cases of avian influenza A/H5N1 and the country had successfully controlled outbreaks of the H5N1 strain over the past five years. — Photo baothaibinh.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam had reported no new human cases of avian influenza A/H5N1 and the country had successfully controlled outbreaks of the H5N1 strain over the past five years, an agriculture official said.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phùng Đức Tiến said the country had also co-ordinated with domestic and international organisations by sharing information and implementing measures to cope with A/H7N9.

“Hundreds of thousands of samples were collected from markets nationwide and none of them tested positive for A/H7N9,” Tiến told a meeting between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention of the US in Hà Nội yesterday.

He said the CDC had offered effective support for Việt Nam’s animal health sector in combating diseases.

MARD pledged to effectively implement programmes supported by the CDC and hoped the organisation would continue to share information to assist the country in vaccine production and research, he said.

The CDC said it valued the initiative taken by the animal health sector in Việt Nam to control diseases. The agency said that it would extend its support in sharing its monitoring and disease control toolkit as well as dispatch experts to help Việt Nam better control influenza and rabies.

John Blandford, country director of the CDC, said the CDC had used a bird flu isolated in Viet Nam to standardize production of the Navet-vifluvac vaccine.

The CDC had also agreed to transfer advanced techniques and technologies for bird flu and rabies vaccine production in Việt Nam, he said.

The CDC helped Việt Nam carry out the "Studies at the Animal-Human Interface of Influenza and Other Zoonotic Diseases" project from 2012-17 with total investment of over US$2.3 million.

The Department of Animal Health under MARD was the main recipient along with research partners including the National Centre for Veterinary Diagnosis.

Under the project, thousands of samples were collected from poultry, pigs and humans in 12 provinces each year.

The project aimed to strengthen the capacity of the animal health and public health sectors to design, conduct, analyse and describe the results of local, regional and national surveillance and research studies.

The results of the tests have helped authorities understand and apply control and intervention measures for influenza and other zoonotic diseases.

The CDC is also sponsoring continuation of the project between 2017-2022 with $2 million investment. It targets different types of bird flu including H5N1, H5N6 and H7N9 at live poultry markets and smuggling/culling points in 10 selected provinces and cities.— VNS