HCMC to monitor entrants from H5N1-stricken areas

In a document sent by deputy chairman of the HCMC People's Committee Duong Anh Duc to relevant authorities, city leaders acknowledge that the H5N1 virus and other avian flu viruses may invade the southern city through the illegal transportation of poultry. Cambodia's Prey Veng Province has already recorded two cases infected with the highly virulent H5N1, resulting in one death, the document added.

Cambodia has confirmed two cases of avian flu this week, and at least 12 others have been tested, Reuters reported.

The Department of Health must monitor and detect cases of severe pneumonia at medical facilities, especially those who returned from areas with outbreaks, and that samples must be collected to figure out the cause of illnesses.

HCMC must tightly monitor entrants from areas with avian flu outbreaks, check the poultry entering Vietnam through the border, and detect early flu outbreaks in the poultry population, as well as strings of pneumonia of unknown origins in the human population.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has requested localities to ramp up the monitoring of openings at the border, as well as ports, in order to prevent H5N1.

When people show signs of H5N1 infection, like coughing, fever, chest pain and difficulty breathing, authorities must perform investigations and detect suspected infection cases for quarantine and testing.

Vietnam recorded its first human case of A/H5N1 avian flu in eight years in October 2022, a five-year-old girl in the northern Phu Tho Province who had consumed meat from sick chickens and ducks a week before falling sick. She recovered after treatment.

The country has recorded 128 cases of H5N1 on humans since 2003, and 64 have died.

A new strain of H5N1, clade 2.3.4.4b, emerged in 2020 and has been causing record numbers of deaths among wild birds and domestic poultry in recent months, and has also infected mammals, Reuters reported.

But unlike earlier outbreaks of H5N1, which has been around for more than two decades, this subtype is not causing significant illness in people, it said.