National Operational Plan on Avian Influenza Control and Prevention, 2014-2018
The overall objectives of the plan are “to progressively control and prevent the spread of avian influenza, to actively establish disease-free zones for avian influenza, and then to eradicate the disease in Viet Nam after 2018.
The specific objectives of the plan are to reduce number of avian influenza outbreaks in high-risk areas (during the control period), and to classify about 60% provinces as low-risk areas in 2015. This percentage will be increased up to 80% by 2018.
One of the main new points of this national plan is the classification of provinces as (1) high-risk areas, consisting of those provinces that had avian influenza outbreaks in 2012-2013, as well as having high prevalence of influenza virus, high density of waterfowls and high density of poultry breeding farms. This area is classified as the control zone; (2) low-risk areas, consisting of those provinces that did not have any avian influenza outbreaks or had only some sporadic outbreaks over the period from 2003-2013, or they had large number of outbreaks in some years ago, but applied effective control activities. Surveillance activities also showed that these provinces have lower prevalence of influenza viruses. These areas are classified as the buffer zone; and (3) temporally safe areas, consisting of all provinces that have not had any outbreaks for at least the five most recent years. These areas have either had no influenza virus circulating, or only very low prevalence. These areas are classified as temporarily free zone that are ready for eradication of the virus.
However, this classification is relative and can be modified to truly reflect the real disease situation so that provinces can be re-classified between zones annually. In particular, high risk provinces will be classified as low-risk areas if they do not have any outbreaks for at least three consecutive years from 2014 onwards, and their surveillance results indicate less than 2% of samples are positive for H5N1 ( this indicator is only applied for the Red River and Mekong River Delta); (2) low-risk provinces will be classified as temporarily safe areas if they do not have any outbreaks for at least five consecutive years from 2014 onwards.
The main components of the national planinclude: (1) disease surveillance; (2) responding to outbreaks; (3) vaccination; (4) establishment of disease-free zones; (5) communication activities to improve public awareness and to change behaviors; and (6) in-depth studies of avian influenza. For vaccination, ducks and Muscovy ducks are the main targets. All poultry in the high-risk areas must be vaccinated, while poultry owners in low-risk area are encouraged to vaccinate their poultry voluntarily. The central government will provide funds for vaccination in the case of disease occurrence.
A total of 866 billion Dong(about 43 million USD) will be mobilized from three main sources, including: (1) the central government will spend about 133 billion Dong; (2) local government will spend about 583 billion Dong; and (3) poultry owners will spend about 150 billion Dong (mainly for procuring vaccines and for vaccination fees).
