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A veterinary staff sprays preventive medicine at Hong Thai Commune, Viet Yen District of Bac Giang Province. — VNA/VNS Photo Viet Yen |
Funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the workshop is being held by the US Department of Defense's Centre for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (COE-DMHA).
"This workshop is the first time that this civilian and military planning tool will be used and tested in Viet Nam," Andy Bates of COE-DMHA said.
The lessons learnt at the workshop could also be used to prepare for other types of infectious diseases that might affect Viet Nam and the region.
Some 100 representatives from around the country are attending the workshop in which the ministries of Defence and Health are actively involved.
The workshop, which aims to facilitate joint planning by provincial and national authorities, also seeks to improve the integration of the military into the Government's pandemic plans, including any possible third wave of the H1N1 virus that swept the globe beginning last year.
For the longer term, the workshop will examine how co-operation and co-ordination can help alleviate the economic hardship that communities face following a disaster.
It is part of a series that COE is executing in nearly a dozen Asian nations from 2010 to 2011 to bring international civilian training, planning, laboratory and containment standards to the region's militaries, many of which will be expected to respond to a deadly global pandemic.
This year COE has held workshops in Hawaii, Laos, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka and plans others in Cambodia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Indonesia. — VNS
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