Vietnam is urgently responding to the high risk of polio outbreaks.

Photo caption — The Ministry of Health held a meeting on polio prevention and control.

In light of the polio outbreak being warned in many countries, at the National Online Conference on Polio Prevention and Control organized by the Ministry of Health on December 12th, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Lien Huong stated: “Recently, Laos declared a nationwide polio epidemic after recording one case testing positive for vaccine-derived polio virus type 1 (VDPV1) at the end of August; and two cases testing positive for polio in October.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) also considers the outbreak in Laos a regional outbreak and recommends that countries sharing borders with Laos jointly implement response measures to combat the epidemic. For Vietnam, the risk of polio entering the country is warned to be very high and present.

Following the WHO's warning, the Ministry of Health has actively and urgently directed its affiliated units and provinces and cities to proactively implement polio prevention and control measures such as: strengthening surveillance of acute flaccid paralysis cases; increasing regular vaccination activities to maintain and improve immunity rates in the community; organizing risk assessments and improving testing capacity… while also assigning specific tasks to institutes in finalizing technical guidelines, developing surveillance plans and responding to the risk of polio outbreaks in Vietnam.”

According to Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Lien Huong, the conference was organized to proactively and promptly respond to the risk of polio entering Vietnam; to review and update the progress of tasks already implemented, assess the risk of disease entry in localities; and to propose appropriate solutions for disease prevention and control in the coming period.

Regarding the current response to the risk of polio entering Vietnam, according to the Department of Disease Prevention (Ministry of Health), the WHO assesses that Vietnam faces a very high risk of the disease entering the country due to the large number of people traveling between Vietnam and Laos; there are still many issues related to hygiene and food conditions, especially the frequent floods that have occurred recently; and with the upcoming Lunar New Year, there will be a great demand for travel…

Conduct a health screening for children before vaccination.

The Department of Disease Prevention is continuing to exchange and constantly update information from the WHO on the polio situation worldwide and in the region; advising and proposing reports to the Ministry's leadership on the response to polio prevention and control. At the same time, it continues to coordinate with the Institutes of Hygiene and Epidemiology and the Pasteur Institute to guide and support localities in continuing to monitor and prevent the epidemic.

In addition, localities are coordinating with the health sector to vigorously implement polio prevention and control measures; the Departments of Health are developing plans to respond to the risk of polio outbreaks and spread. The Departments of Health in provinces and cities are stepping up communication and recommendations for polio prevention and control; improving the quality of disease surveillance, increasing vaccination rates for the population, and reviewing and ensuring logistics and resources for disease prevention and control activities according to the "four on-the-spot" principle.

Polio is caused by the Polio virus; the disease is primarily transmitted through the gastrointestinal tract via the fecal-oral route. The virus can survive in the environment for several days, especially in contaminated water and food.
Polio is very dangerous; about 90% of cases infected with this virus show no obvious symptoms, making the disease difficult to detect. However, among those who do have symptoms, up to 1 in 200 cases will develop permanent paralysis, usually of the lower limbs. Currently, there is no specific cure for this disease; however, an effective vaccine is available.

According to VNA

Source: https://baohaiphong.vn/viet-nam-khan-truong-ung-pho-truc-nguy-co-cao-dich-benh-bai-liet-xam-nhap-529353.html