Ho Chi Minh city will have to control Zika virus and will not allow a major outbreak, said Nguyen Thi Quyet Tam, Deputy Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh city Party Committee and Chairwoman of the city People’s Council, during a meeting with the city People’s Committee and relevant agencies on November 6th on prevention of the disease.
The testing system for Zika virus at Ho Chi Minh city Pasteur Institute (Photo: VNA)
According to the city Health Department, as of November 6th, the city reported 29 cases positive for Zika virus across 19 wards of 11 districts. Over the past week, the city has tested 47 samples with eight confirmed to be positive for the virus. “The test results of another 68 samples will be announced later after tests are complete,” said Nguyen Tri Dung, Director of the city Preventive Health Centre, asserting that no more new cases had been detected.
During the meeting, Head of the Ho Chi Minh Pasteur Institute Phan Trong Lan said that although the city had rapidly controlled Zika virus cases, prevention met a lot of difficulties. “Urbanization and population density make prevention more difficult,” he added.
“A large number of dumping grounds and ongoing construction create favourable conditions for the development of mosquito larva – the source of the disease; meanwhile, some families do not have adequate awareness on prevention.”
According to Nguyen Tan Binh, Director of the city Health Department, to prevent the disease, when a suspected cases is reported, the medical sector will carry out sanitation on a large scale from 2-3 times; and increase the dissemination of information on the disease among people.
Nguyen Thi Thu, Vice Chairwoman of the city People’s Committee, added that the city had issued a plan for the prevention of petechial fever and Zika virus in which specific missions had been assigned to each agency. Together with it, the city has set up a steering committee on the prevention of Zika virus, involving leaders of each district.
To improve the prevention, according to Ms Quyet Tam, the city should direct districts and unions to encourage people to join the campaign of killing mosquitoes and larva every week, and put a larger amount of capital into the prevention.
She also urged to city to deal with any neglected construction sites that cause environmental pollution.
According to the Preventive Health Department under the Ministry of Health, so far the country has detected 37 cases positive for Zika virus in seven localities./.
Compiled by BTA
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