Mystery bug in remission
HA NOI (VNS, March 20, 2003)— The atypical pneumonia that has killed a nurse and infected 58 others in the capital city seems to have stabilised, according to the Health Ministry.
Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Van Thuong optimistically stated that the fatal disease seemed to be contained, when he spoke at the Party Ideology and Culture Commission’s regular media briefing on Tuesday.
He said that although there were no signs of further outbreaks, the ministry would stay on high alert as the mysterious pneumonia spread further around the globe.
Thuong said the ministry has also directed local health departments to employ preventative measures and station medical experts at airports and border checkpoints.
Vietnam Airlines representatives said that it had sprayed all of its international planes with anti-bacterial products and had instructed its overseas offices and crew members to co-operate with foreign authorities and stop suspected carriers from boarding any flights.
The officials denied that the scare had affected its business, but observers have predicted that tourism could be affected if the situation is not resolved soon.
The Health Ministry will spend VND8 billion (US$533,000) to buy medicine and equipment to fight the outbreak, while the Finance Ministry has approved VND15 billion in additional funding.
Over the past two days, sales of surgical masks, nasal and oral medicines and antibiotics had reportedly risen across the city.
The situation was calm in most cities and provinces, except in Bac Ninh, where officials reported a suspected case of atypical pneumonia linked to the Hanoi French Hospital.
In Geneva on Monday, World Health Organisation (WHO) officials confirmed that one of its doctors who had been working at the French Hospital had fallen ill on a flight to Bangkok and was hospitalised on arrival.
The head of the WHO’s communicable diseases unit, Dr. David Heymann, said the illness did not appear to spread as rapidly as influenza.
"It isn’t contagious at the level of many other infectious diseases," he said. "A normal influenza would be very contagious to people sitting in the same room."
"There should not be panic. This is a disease which, it seems, requires very close contact with patients and it is mainly hospital workers who have been infected in the first wave of infections. Now we are seeing that some other family members have been infected," Heymann said. — VNS
