A series of online conferences themed “Overseas Vietnamese join hands to put the pandemic under control” will be launched on July 31 by a Vietnamese Italian expert team led by Doctor Karen Kieu Nguyen.
A series of online conferences themed “Overseas Vietnamese join hands to put the pandemic under control” will be launched on July 31 by a Vietnamese Italian expert team led by Doctor Karen Kieu Nguyen.
The activity aims to respond to the call by the Party and State leaders for the Vietnamese community’s support to the Covid-19 fight.
In the first conference, the experts will share experience with Ho Chi Minh City in deploying a family doctor system in Italy for treatment of Covid-19 patients.
Speaking to a Vietnam News Agency correspondent in Italy, Doctor Karen Kieu Nguyen said that since the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak in Vietnam, the Vietnamese Government has valued ideas and experience shared by overseas Vietnamese in pandemic prevention and control.
She held that Vietnam showed a strong performance in pandemic control in 2020 with low numbers of infections and deaths, and a high number of recoveries.
However, recently, the number of new infections is rising, she noted, adding that the guidelines given by family doctors via telephone to patients who quarantine and receive treatment at home are necessary in reducing transmission risk and overload at hospitals.
As scheduled, Doctor Karen Kieu Nguyen and her peers from the 118 emergency centre of Italy will arrive in HCMC to support the city in the process of screening, treating and caring for Covid-19 patients, and share Italy’s experience in vaccine distribution.
The conference series is the initiative of a group of overseas Vietnamese, including Danny Vo Thanh Dang from Singapore, Dr. Nguyen Duc Thai and Dr. William H. Nguyen from the US.
According to Dr. Karen Kieu Nguyen, there are many variants of SARS-CoV-2 in the world, of which there are 4 variants: Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), Gamma (P.1) and Delta (B.1.617.2) has a faster infection rate than the original strain by 82%, 161%, 50% and 198%, respectively.
To detect the SARS-CoV-2 variants circulating in a region, the method the researchers are currently using is to sequence the entire genome of the virus detected in the samples. However, the sequencing method has the limitation that it cannot be applied in clinical laboratories in hospitals and research centers.
The goal of the research has been successful and has been published internationally: designing a test kit using Multi Real Time PCR machine that can be performed in laboratories, testing in hospitals for diagnosis and development. Rapid expression of 4 variants Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta and two mutations that cause the virus to spread rapidly (D614G) and can escape the action of specific antibodies (E484 K).
