About 75 per cent of emerging infectious diseases affecting humans originated from wild animals, warned the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) at a two-day workshop that ended yesterday in Hanoi.
South East Asia, including Vietnam, was considered a hotspot for potential new emerging infectious diseases, according to the agency.
Director of USAID in Vietnam Francis Donovan said the diseases could spread very quickly and caused negative impacts on public health, the economy and social development.
USAID studies showed that wildlife-related diseases were more apparent in developing countries than in others because there, people\'s lives depend more on natural resources.
"Developing comprehensive disease detection and response capacities will be a good investment, as will improving our understanding of wildlife diseases and the important role they may play in public health," Donovan said.
Although Vietnam is one of leading nations in responding and effectively implementing animal and public health measures, the threat remains.
Bird flu, swine flu and SARS are obvious examples of dangerous diseases originating from animals which have affected human health in recent years.
So far, 217 people had tested positive for the A/H1N1 flu virus (swine flu) across the country, resulting in seven deaths, the health ministry reported.
Bird flu had infected 119 people in Vietnam, resulting in 59 deaths since 2003, said Nguyen Thi Thu Yen from the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.
Van Dang Ky from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development\'s Animal Health Department said that diseases would be transmitted from wild animals to domestic animals if farmers were allowed to graze their animals freely.
Viet Nam was faced with a number of challenges including a lack of money for research to prevent infectious diseases spreading from animals to humans and a lack of awareness about the diseases, Yen said.
The workshop, organised by the Agriculture Ministry and USAID, gathered over 120 delegates from Government agencies and international organisations.
