While Vietnam is taking measures to prevent the H7N9 bird flu virus from penetrating Vietnam, a World Health Organization official said that no cases of H7N9 have been reported outside of China, where seven people have died of the new virus strain. Michael O'Leary, head of the WHO office in China, also said yesterday that no person-to-person spread of the H7N9 virus has been found at this time, Shanghai Daily reported. "So far, we really only have sporadic cases of a rare disease, and perhaps it will remain that way. So this is not a time for overreaction or panic," O'Leary told reporters. "These are a relatively small number of serious cases with personal health, medical implications, but not at this stage known public health implications," O'Leary was quoted by Reuters as saying. But he emphasized that information collected about the virus was still incomplete. "H7N9 is a new virus in humans and the pattern that it follows cannot be predicted by the patterns that we have from other influenza viruses," O'Leary said. O'Leary also told reporters in Beijing that the WHO is working with the Chinese government in sending international experts to China to help investigate the new bird flu strain that has now affected at least 24 people.

He also praised China for mobilizing resources nationwide to fight the H7N9 flu strain by culling tens of thousands of birds and monitoring hundreds of people who have had contact with those infected. Liang Wannian, director of the Chinese health agency's H7N9 flu prevention and control office, said Chinese scientists were in the early stages of studying a possible vaccine for the virus. As previously reported, Vietnam’s Health Ministry has adopted a plan of action to fight H7N9 flu.  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.

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, 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 who have a fever will be taken to separate rooms where they will be given medical examinations, said 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.