Vietnam will launch multi-sectoral efforts in combating epidemic diseases and join with countries worldwide in this endeavour, Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien told the Global Health Security Conference in Washington DC, the US, on September 26.

She said Vietnam vows to fight epidemics in humans transmitted by animals and adopt the model of Emergency Operations Centre for epidemics control and public health care.

US President Barack Obama and Director General of the World Health Organisation Margaret Chan, in their speeches, underscored the challenges of global epidemic outbreaks, including Ebola in western African countries.

Attendees urged more accelerated efforts towards the goal of effective prevention, early detection and rapid response.

Canada, Finland, Germany, Japan and the Republic of Korea promised financial and technical assistance in laboratory tests and drug-resistance prevention.

The conference will become an annual event with the next to be held in the Republic of Korea in 2015.

During their stay in the US , the Vietnamese delegation held working sessions with Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell, former Ambassador to Vietnam David Shear who is now Defence Secretary Assistant, and Coordinator of the US Global AIDS Office Deborah Brix.

The hosts and other international organisations pledged help to Vietnam in the US’s Global Health Security Program in terms of technical transfer and financing in the next five years.

Vietnam is one of the first two countries chosen to pilot the programme following the working visit in 2013 by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The US committed over USD 400,000 to Vietnam in October, and the sum may be higher in the next coming years.

Source: SGGP