The Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi has tightened medical quarantine to detect MERS-CoV, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome caused by the Corona virus that has spread to over a dozen countries in the world and may penetrate into Vietnam.

>> Vietnam health ministry warns of MERS-CoV spread The quarantine has been strengthened after the Ministry of  Health warned on May 21 that MERS-CoV has spread to 18 countries in Europe, Asia and America, affecting 614 people and killing 181 of them since it first appeared in Saudi Arabia in 2012.

Vietnam has yet to detect any people infected with MERS-CoV, but the virus may penetrate into the country in the future, as there are a large number of Vietnamese guest workers in the Middle East, the ministry's Preventive Health Department said.

Therefore, Hanoi Health Department has requested that the International Medical Quarantine Center coordinate with the airport authority to closely examine all visitors, especially those coming from countries or territories being affected by MERS-CoV, to detect infections, if any. 

The International Medical Quarantine Center has provided the airport with two infrared temperature sensors  to detect visitors who have fever and signs of acute respiratory inflammation. The airport has arranged two isolated rooms equipped with all necessary means including medicine to treat and take care of those with such conditions. The center has also arranged two ambulances to transport patients to the Central Tropical Diseases Hospital when necessary.

In order to prevent the spread of the disease, people suspected to infect with the Corona virus should be isolated and given care and treatment properly, the health department said.

MERS-CoV is a viral respiratory disease that was first discovered in Saudi Arabia in 2012, and the Corona virus is suspected to originate from camels, Tran Dac Phu, head of the Preventive Health Department, said.

The Corona virus is transmitted from human to human and the mortality is as high as 30 percent, Phu said.

The Philippines and Malaysia, two Southeast Asian countries, have recorded MERS-CoV infections among the people who returned home from their visits to the Middle East, Phu revealed.

Anyone with symptoms of the disease, such as fever, coughing and difficult breathing, should go to medical facilities for examinations and treatment, he added.