Located at the Nha Trang Pasteur Institute, the office will serve as an emergency response and coordination centre for public health issues, including dangerous or emerging diseases that affect social security and people’s health in the central region.
The EOC will collect, monitor and analyse surveillance data, conduct epidemic investigations and enhance co-ordination between medical facilities within and outside the health sector.
Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son highlighted the inauguration of the EOC as an important milestone on the road to establishing a national emergency response system in Vietnam.
The office will help collect information about public health risks from many sources, analyse and share information, thereby making effective plans to respond to emergency public health situations in the central area, Son said.
Son added the health ministry has promoted the role of the EOC in the prevention of MERS-CoV, Ebola, Zika, influenza A (H7N9) viruses and other epidemics like dengue and measles.
On March 13, the health ministry also launched an EOC at the Central Highland Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Buon Ma Thuot city, the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak.
Through the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDC) and the Defence Mitigation Agency (DTRA) of the US Department of Defence, the United States government has supported information management and human resource training system to operate the EOC system in Vietnam.
