Cause of acute diarrhea to be announced by the end of May

May 8, 2008

The cause of the recent acute diarrhea epidemic will be announced by the end of this month, said Prof. Dr. Nguyen Tran Hien, Director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE).

At present, representatives from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and NIHE staff are conducting research and tests to identify the cause of the disease. They will examine the current Vibrio Cholerae and compare it with the virus that caused the cholera epidemics in 1995, 1996, 2002 and 2004.

However, it has been difficult to contact agencies in other countries in the region in order to compare the virus’ characteristics.

Dr Hien affirmed that Vietnam will ask international healthcare centres where various types of testing samples are kept, to help Vietnamese medical experts compare the Vietnamese virus with others. The identification of the cause of the acute diarrhea will play a key factor in helping to prevent the epidemic in the future, he added.

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