Foreigners can call trilingual helplines to get MERS-related information in Vietnam

The Hanoi Department of Health has announced the Vietnamese-English hotline at 0969082115 and another at 0949396115 in Korean through which callers can ask any questions about MERS and receive replies from epidemic consultants.

The hotline in Korean was set up following a MERS outbreak that has raged in South Korea since May 20.

South Korea's health ministry on Tuesday reported that 154 people have been infected with MERS and 19 of them have died, according toReuters.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien has sent a message to the people’s committees of provinces and cities nationwide, asking them to strengthen MERS-related communication activities toward foreigners in Vietnam, especially South Koreans who are working at industrial parks and export processing zones.

Accordingly, anyone coming to Vietnam from the epidemic-hit areas must fill out a health declaration form and take care of themselves for 14 days – the incubation period of the disease – and those who develop fever, coughing, or acute respiratory inflammation must visit a heath facility for examination or inform the hotlines of their case, Vietnam’s health ministry said.

Vietnam has yet to detect anyone infected with MERS, which first appeared in Saudi Arabia in 2012, but the virus may penetrate the Southeast Asian country via people who come from areas affected by the epidemic, including the Middle East and South Korea, Minister Tien said.

So far, Vietnam has had 10 suspected MERS cases, tests on which have all proven negative, according to the Vietnamese health ministry.

Globally, since September 2012, 1,289 cases of MERS infection have been confirmed, including at least 455 related deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a recent disease outbreak update.

According to the WHO, the following 25 countries have reported cases of MERS: Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen (Middle East); Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Turkey, and the United Kingdom (Europe); Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt (Africa); China, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, and the Philippines (Asia); and the United States of America (Americas).

The vast majority of these cases have so far occurred in Saudi Arabia, the WHO said.

Dr. Tran Dac Phu, head of the Vietnamese health ministry’s Health Preventive Department, noted that the disease transmits from ill people to others through close contact, such as caring for or living with an infected person, and the mortality rate is as high as 40 percent.