Health Ministry issues plan against MERS-CoV

The Vietnamese Ministry of Health on June 6 issued an action plan against the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in an effort to promptly detect and treat infected cases and to prevent an outbreak of the disease in Vietnam.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Health on June 6 issued an action plan against the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in an effort to promptly detect and treat infected cases and to prevent an outbreak of the disease in Vietnam.

The plan includes solutions for three scenarios; one in which no cases have been reported; in the second one cases have been identified and the third one is when the disease has begun to spread in a community.

The plan underlines the importance of supervision, especially at border gates, and personal protection for medical staff.

The plan recommends the health sector establish a network of hospitals ready to admit and treat patients in accordance to each scenario, to prevent overloading.

Rules on medical examination, isolation, treatment and the prevention of infection and cross-infection at hospitals must strictly be followed, while the methods of diagnosis and treatment of MERS-Cov must constantly be reviewed and updated.

According to the ministry, prevention measures are extremely necessary because the possibility of MERS-Cov entering Vietnam and developing into an epidemic is high given that the disease is able to be spread through human contact.

The MERS-CoV has been spread from the Middle East to some countries in Asia and no vaccine or medicine has been found to cure the disease.

Good personal hygiene and community publicity campaigns are the major prevention measures at the moment.