GBP6 million to help Vietnam develop dengue fever forecast

The UK Space Agency's International Partnership Programme (IPP) has decided to allocate GBP6 million for Vietnam to build an early warning system of dengue fever outbreaks.

Patients have to share beds due to overloading during the peak period of the dengue epidemic. (Photo: VNA)
Patients have to share beds due to overloading during the peak period of the dengue epidemic. (Photo: VNA)

The information was announced by UK Science Minister Sam Gyimah and it is one of the ten projects funded by the UK Space Agency.

Of the amount, 4.1 million GBP comes from official development assistance and the rest is contributed by other partners joining the project.

A group of UK organisations, led by HR Wallingford, will collaborate with Vietnamese partners to develop dengue outbreak early warning tools, thus facilitating effective resource mobilisation and allocation for targeted areas.

The dengue forecast system will also be made to account for different scenarios of climate change under the project. The warning system will include models to evaluate water resources, thus improving water management in cross-border river basin areas.

Youth Union members provide information on dengue fever to local people in Hanoi. (Photo: NDO)

The project will be jointly implemented by the Health Ministry, Vietnam Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Climate change, Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City, the National Institute of Hygiene Epidemiology, the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Development Programme.

This is the second IPP-funded project in Vietnam. The programme provided GBP2.5 million for a project on natural disaster adaption in Vietnam in 2016, with the participation of British Stevenson Astrosat Company.

Dengue fever has become one of the most serious problems affecting the health of the community, particularly following the epidemic of dengue fever cases in 2017.

Last year, 183,287 cases of dengue fever were reported nationwide, mostly in the south and the north, including 154,552 hospitalised patients and 30 deaths, mainly concentrated in the South and the North.