Friday, 21/10/2016 22:06 (GMT+7)
The National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology on October 20th started the operation of an emergency operations centre (EOC) to collect information about epidemics from 28 Northern localities for building the body of data on national epidemics and putting forth warnings about epidemics.
Photo: VGP
This is the second EOC after the Ministry of Health-based national EOC being put into operation.
It was established thanks to the technical and financial support from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for Vietnam, in order to help increase the ability in detecting and responding global health risks, as part of the global health security agenda having been carried out since June 2014, and now reaching over 50 countries worldwide.
During a ceremony to begin the operation of the second EOC in Vietnam, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said that Vietnam was affected by diverse infectious diseases, including trans-national infectious diseases which could spread in several hours or several days across continents such as SARS, flu A, MERS-CoV, Ebola and Zika.
“The danger, emergency and challenges of global epidemics require countries, regions and the world to unite for more effective and flexible prevention strategies,” he said.
Deputy Minister Long added that he hoped with the assistance from the U.S Government and international organizations, especially CDC, additional EOCs will be established at the Ho Chi Minh city Pasteur Institute, Nha Trang city Pasteur Institute, the Central Highlands Hygiene and Epidemiology Centre and at other localities across the country, creating a complete EOC network in Vietnam which will help the country be active in dealing with public medical events.
Earlier, the national EOC, established by and placed at the Ministry of Health, began its operation in February 2015./.
Compiled by BTA