Agencies link up to help prevent A(H1N1) at work
July 21, 2009 9:18 am
HANOI, July 21 – The Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs has realized that raising the awareness of A(H1N1) flu in workers and enterprises is an important factor in preventing the spread of the virus.
Addressing the national conference on preventing a A(H1N1) epidemic in the work place held in Hanoi on July 21, Head of the Labour Safety Department Doan Minh Hoa said that the ministry has liaised with the Health Ministry and relevant sectors to control the flu in humans and update workers and employers with information on the virus, as well as preventive and treatment measures.
The ministry also asked the Health Ministry and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to combine training and public information on human influenza with the National Programme on labour protection, safety and hygiene.
Supporting these efforts, Tsuyoshi Kawakami, a senior expert on labor safety from the International Labor Organization (ILO)’s East Asia and Thailand Office, said that the organization is going to carry out a programme to control human influenza in the work place in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia.
At present, the programme is being implemented in Thailand and Indonesia.
At the conference, experts from the Ministries of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, Health, and Agriculture and Rural Development, ILO and WHO discussed how to come up with suitable and effective measures at a low cost to reduce the risk of flu spreading in the work place.
Experts from the ILO introduced a handbook for workers and enterprises that is hoped to help prevent the A(H1N1) virus.
According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, as of July 20, 139 countries and territories across the world have now recorded 137,232 cases of A(H1N1) flu, 779 of which have been fatal.
In Vietnam, 408 cases have tested positive for the A(H1N1) flu virus but no deaths have been reported so far. (PNA/VNA) vcs/utb
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