NEWS IN BRIEF

1. Receiving a high level of consensus among national and international partners, and having official authorization from Ministry of Health (MOH), the Viet Nam One Health Strategic Plan for Zoonotic Diseases, 2016 – 2020 (OHSP) was adopted by Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) under Decision No. 5273/QĐ-BNN-HTQT dated 19 December 2016.Accordingly,MARD plays the role of leading agency and will cooperate with MOH in implementing the Plan, including being a national focal point for international cooperation in zoonotic diseases prevention and control; giving guidance and monitoring the operation of the Strategic Plan of ministries, sectors and local areas. Also, the collaboration between MARD and other related ministries and agencies will be strengthened during the implementation of the Plan. Report on progress of the Plan will be made through Annual One Health Forum hosted by MARD and MOH with the participation of other related ministries, sectors and One Health Partnership Framework signatories. Moving forward, there will be a launching meeting to widely disseminate the Plan in the upcoming time./.

2. Being approved by Minister of Health, from 28/10 – 04/11/2016, WHO Mission organized the Joint External Evaluation (JEE) of the International Health Regulations (IHR)(2005) implementation in Viet Nam. Results have shown that Viet Nam has fulfilled the commitment to fully complete all technical work and ensure the continuation and strengthening of IHR implementation over the years in Prevent-Detect-Respond to public health events. The Mission also highly appreciate the political commitment of the country in following the health security agenda and enacting national legislation, conducting specific activites at local areas and maintaining close collaboration between MOH, MARD and other ministries and sectors. To futher strengthen IHR implementation capacities, Viet Nam is recommended to promote the coordination between relevant stakeholders, improving financial and human resource investment for health security assurance, in the context where external fund might decrease in the upcoming time. (Information provided by MOH)./.

3. From 15 – 17 November 2016 in Tam Ky City, Quang Nam Province,a Simulation workshop on cross-sector collaboration (animal and human sectors) in prevention and control of zoonotic diseases was conducted under the collaboration between Preparedness & Response (P&R) project, FAO, WHO and Government counterpart such as General Department of Preventive Medicine (GDPM), National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) from Ministry of Health and Department of Animal Health (DAH) from Ministry of Agriculture. The specific technical focus of the simulation was on Rabies, one of five priority zoonotic diseases in Circular 16. The simulation workshop had brought significant opportunity for animal and human health workers at commune, district and provincial levels to work together on review and practice Rabies SOP. This cross-sector simulation provided a practical and useful lesson on how to ensure effective collaboration in outbreak investigation, surveillance, information sharing and reporting (According to P&R project/EPT-2)./.

4. In 2016, the avian influenza situation has become complex in many countries over the world. According to World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), influenza type A(H5) has been continuously detected in several states. While in human, many cases of highly pathogenic influenza viruses such as A(H5N1) and A(H5N6) were reported to WHO from China and Egypt. In Viet Nam, as informed by DAH/MARD, avian influenza outbreaks of type A(H5N1) and A(H5N6) occurred in some households in 2016. However, due to close collaboration between MARD and MOH, the outbreaks were well controlled and the transmission to human was avoided. With the aim of preparation for early detection and response to effectively control disease outbreaks, many timely prevention actions were taken by responsible agencies such as a training on active avian and swine influenza surveillance with more than 180 veterinary, laboratory and finance officers  participants (organized by DAH and FAO ECTAD). Along with that, some recommendations for people were given by General Department for Preventive Medicine (GDPM)/Ministry of Health in the year-end and beginning of festive season in 2017, to proactively prevent the spread of avian influenza virus to humans. For detailed information, please visit the website address of GDPM at http://vncdc.gov.vn./.