Central province raises level of Zika virus prevention status

The People’s Committee of the central province of Khanh Hoa has issued a plan on the prevention of Zika viruses, in which the level of prevention will be raised to the second level – the level that can deal with reported cases.

The epidemic is inspected at airports. (Photo: VNA)

The prevention plan has been reinforced after an Australian tourist who travelled in Vietnam, including Khanh Hoa province, tested positive for the virus when returning home.

The Khanh Hoa provincial Heath Department has asked all medical centres, especially those in Nha Trang city where there is a large number of foreign tourists, to take medical samples of all patients with petechial fever for testing in the Nha Trang Pasteur Institute and for controlling the spread of the virus.

The provincial Hospital for Tropical Diseases has set up isolated areas and been well prepared to receive any Zika virus positive patients.

Meanwhile, the provincial People’s Committee has earmarked VND10 billion for the prevention of petechial fever and VND3 billion for the prevention of Zika virus epidemic.

Since the beginning of this year, the Vietnamese epidemic control system has collected and tested 784 samples for the Zika virus across 32 provinces and cities; however, no sample has tested positive for the virus.

As of March 30^th, 61 countries and territories in the world have reported the occurrence or spread of the virus./.

( Compiled by VNF )