HCMC – The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S. CDC) in Vietnam has been closely working with the Vietnamese Ministry of Health to respond to an outbreak of monkeypox.

Dr. Eric Dziuban, director of the U.S. CDC in Vietnam, told a press briefing on July 29, that the U.S. side has been teaming up with the ministry to get prepared to fight monkeypox for two months. On June 1, the two sides held a meeting to discuss measures to prevent monkeypox from spreading to the country, Dziuban said, adding that many members of the U.S. CDC partnered with the Vietnamese side to give guidelines on surveillance, quarantine, monitoring, testing, diagnosis and treatment. Besides, the U.S. CDC is also collaborating with the ministry and the World Health Organization to aid Vietnam with biological products for monkeypox testing, Thanh Nien Online reported. Dziuban strongly believes that Vietnam could respond to monkeypox well as it had gained experience in coping with Covid and brought the coronavirus under control. Monkeypox is a pox virus, related to smallpox, but its death rate is lower than that of smallpox. Monkeypox is not spreading as rapidly as Covid and is less dangerous than the latter, said the director of the U.S. CDC in Vietnam. As there is no vaccine for monkeypox, Dziuban advised residents to keep a safe physical distance from those who develop symptoms of the disease, such as a rash, and regularly wash their hands. As of July 29, over 21,140 monkeypox cases had been detected in 78 countries while Vietnam had reported no case.