Vietnam’s Health Ministry has adopted a plan of action to fight avian influenza caused by a new strain of flu virus, H7N9, which has affected 21 people and killed six in China so far.

According to the plan, there are four different possible scenarios: people do not contract the deadly virus, there are patients suffering from H7N9 but no cases of  human-to-human transmission are discovered,  human-to-human transmission is found but not on a large scale, or the epidemic is widespread throughout communities. Testing for diagnosis will be carried out at three health units: the National Hygiene and Epidemiology Institute, the Ho Chi Minh Pasteur Institute and the Nha Trang Pasteur Institute. In the event of a pandemic, makeshift hospitals will be set up in proper locations to receive and give treatment to patients, and restrictions on travel and compulsory prophylactic measures will be applied to areas where the pandemic is raging. As reported, Ho Chi Minh City health authorities have called on concerned agencies to take necessary measures, including checking visitors’ body temperatures at control points, to cope with the latest bird flu strain H7N9, for which there is no vaccine. Accordingly, Tan Son Nhat Airport has used tele-thermometers to measure the body temperatures of all visitors to HCMC for detection of abnormality since last Saturday, April 6. Those whose body temperature is above 37 degrees Celsius are required to make a health declaration under the instruction of health officers, and those who have a fever will be taken to separate rooms where they will be given medical examinations, said a representative of the International Quarantine Center. Samples of those with pneumonia, which is suspected to be caused by the deadly virus, will be sent to the HCMC Pasteur Institute for testing.

Similar precautions have also been carried out at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, where two temperature scanners are currently in operation. The Health Ministry has called on everybody not to eat poultry that is of unclear origin or which has died of bird flu or unknown causes. China has so far confirmed 21 cases of H7N9 infection, with symptoms including fever and respiratory problems, such as severe pneumonia. Of these infected people, six have died.