Tourist from Wuhan quarantined at Danang Hospital

Nguyen Tien Hong, deputy director of Danang Department of Health, said on January 16 that they had had the test results of Chinese tourist Xiong Tianzuo.

The test results were negative with many viruses including Sara-CoV, Coronavirus OC43, 229E, NL63, HKU1, Flu C, EV, and Rhinovirus.

However, they are still waiting for the Ministry of Health to import the equipment to test for the new strain of viral pneumonia from Wuhan. "This is a new illness. We don't have the equipment for it yet," Hong said.

At 2.30 pm on January 14, two Chinese tourists from Wuhan showed signs of a fever and were isolated after landing at Danang International Airport.

The tourists, Wang Hao Yu, born in 2016, and Xiong Tianzuo, born in 1997, are both from Wuhan City. One hour after being monitored at the airport, Wang's fever dropped to 36.9 degrees and he was allowed to enter Vietnam. His family was advised to keep monitoring health at the medical station near their hotel.

Xiong's body temperature was at 37.8 degrees so the Centre for Disease Control reported to the Department of Health and transferred him to Danang General Hospital for monitoring.

The samples were sent to the Pasteur Institute in Nha Trang for tests.

Health sector promptly gears up for nCoV infections

At the meeting of the MoH (Photo: moh.gov.vn)

The health sector is prompting actions to prevent the acute pneumonia caused by a novel coronavirus (nCoV) from entering Vietnam and gear up to deal with it if infections are reported.

The Ministry of Health (MoH)’s steering committee for the prevention and control of dangerous and emerging diseases held an urgent meeting in Hanoi on January 15 to discuss measures to cope with this disease.

The MoH’s General Department of Preventive Medicine said on January 14, the infectious disease monitoring system found two Chinese nationals from Wuhan city to show fever symptoms at Da Nang International Airport. The two have been isolated and placed under close monitoring. Samples from them have been sent to the Pasteur Institute in Nha Trang city for testing.

Pending testing results, the Health Department of Da Nang city has implemented strict measures to prevent infection at local medical establishments. The MoH has sent a working group to the central city to step up disease prevention and control activities, the general department said.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), cases of acute pneumonia caused by nCoV were reported in Wuhan city of China’s Hubei province. The first patient developed symptoms on December 12, 2019, and the number of cases reached 59 as of January 15, including seven severe cases, one death, two fully recovered, and others in stable condition. There is no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Xuan Tuyen said Vietnam hasn’t recorded any cases of infection. However, the entry of this disease into the country is completely possible since Vietnam has constant trading and tourism activities with China.

In January and February, the MoH will send more working groups to examine disease prevention and control at hospitals and localities bordering China. It has also ordered localities to take active measures to prevent the disease and stay ready to handle and treat infection cases if there are any.

The ministry will also keep close coordination with the WHO to update people on the latest information about this disease, Tuyen added.

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that cause illness in the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal tract of humans and some animals. They can spread through direct contact with respiratory secretions of patients.

In humans, coronaviruses cause illnesses in winter and early spring, ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). A novel coronavirus is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans./.Dtinews/VNA

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