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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, October 20, 2003

International symposium on SARS held in Vietnam

Like many other countries, Vietnam continues to take concrete measures to deal with the possibility of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) return this winter, although it was the first country in the world to contain the disease.


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Like many other countries, Vietnam continues to take concrete measures to deal with the possibility of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) return this winter, although it was the first country in the world to contain the disease.

Vietnamese Minister of Health Tran Thi Trung Chien made the announcements at the two-day international symposium on SARS prevention which started in Hanoi on Monday.

According to Chien, six lessons learned from Vietnam's SARS control and prevention are strong political commitment and direct guidance of the government, well-functioning national preventive medicine system, effective surveillance and isolation, close cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) and foreign countries, widespread and rapid dissemination of SARS-related information, and smooth coordination between state agencies and foreign partners.

"On March 17 (a week after receiving the first report on SARS outbreak), the Vietnamese government decided to set up the National Steering Committee for SARS control and prevention... Even now, this committee continues to hold a meeting every two weeks to inform its members about the latest information about SARS," Chien said.

Lessons drawn from Vietnam's success in SARS containment and preparedness are similar to those learned from other countries such as China and Singapore, according to reports presented by health officials and experts.

The Symposium on SARS: Lessons Learned and Challenges, is mainly attended by Vietnamese and foreign health officials and experts from the Chinese mainland, China's Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, France, Belgium, Canada, New Zealand, the WHO, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. They discuss effective ways of controlling and preventing SARS in countries and regions.

Before the WHO declared the global SARS outbreak was contained on July 5, the disease hit 29 countries and territories, causing 8,098 people to be infected with, 774 to die and 100,000 to be isolated. In Vietnam, 63 local people were infected with SARS, five of whom died.


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