Improving testing capacity for Covid-19 According to the explanation of Minister Nguyen Thanh Long, this outbreak in Ho Chi Minh City is different from previous times when it was not possible to completely trace all sources of infection. The cause is the appearance of clusters of cases, pathogens can spread and spread quickly, thereby causing potential case misses. Besides, the epidemic in the city has a very fast rate of transmission. When a case is recorded, many people in the family, production line or company have also been infected. Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long held a meeting with the Ho Chi Minh City Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control on the afternoon of June 19. Photo: Khoi Nguyen. Regarding the orientation in the coming time, the Minister of Health emphasized that improving testing capacity is one of the strategic solutions so that Ho Chi Minh City can quickly control and prevent the disease. Accordingly, Ho Chi Minh City needs to quickly improve testing capacity with a capacity of 500,000 aggregate samples per day, this scenario has been proposed before but needs to be implemented immediately to quickly stop the source of infection. Testing should be carried out in different forms, with key areas, to ensure that all relevant people are tested without omission and repeated testing after 5-7 days. With cases detected through screening, testing or hospital examination, the health sector needs to immediately localize and test the entire area, at the same time implement tracing measures and take samples for testing. In relevant cases, it is possible to apply sample 5 with F1, 10-20 with other cases. For industrial zones, the Minister said that Ho Chi Minh City needs regular screening tests to protect this area against the risk of disease invasion. At the same time, Ho Chi Minh City needs to have a large-scale screening test for the whole city in the form of 1-2 people per household. Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long. Photo: Duy Hieu. The Minister emphasized the need to quickly test for antigens, not to leave samples; Strengthening human resources to take samples and perform tests, and at the same time can consider and guide people to take samples for quick testing at home. Medical facilities need to test all patients who come for medical examination and treatment, not only focusing on groups of patients with clinical manifestations such as cough, fever, etc. Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said that the agencies under the Ministry located in the area will be mobilized to support the health sector in Ho Chi Minh City. In which, the University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Ho Chi Minh City mobilizes all students to participate in sampling, the Pasteur Institute of Ho Chi Minh City and other departments will provide maximum support with the coordination of HCMC. Preparing the plan that Ho Chi Minh City has 5,000 cases Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said that Ho Chi Minh City has distanced the whole city according to Directive 15, but the implementation still has many shortcomings. Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases, a large-scale Covid-19 treatment center in Ho Chi Minh City, is temporarily blocked. Photo: Chi Hung. The Minister recommended that the distance in Ho Chi Minh City should be implemented in different levels, depending on the characteristics of each area, should not rigidly apply Directive 16 throughout the city. Regarding treatment, Ho Chi Minh City needs to be ready for the scenario of 5,000 cases, plan to coordinate the army forces in the area to establish a field hospital; assigned Cho Ray Hospital to be ready for the scenario of setting up an emergency room to receive treatment for serious patients, especially cases requiring intensive intervention such as ECMO. For this scenario, the health sector in Ho Chi Minh City needs to review and prepare medical facilities, equipment and supplies. The Ministry of Health will provide some necessary equipment such as HFLC equipment, ventilators, ECMO to meet the treatment needs of serious patients. With the work of vaccination against Covid-19 vaccine, the Minister suggested that the city health sector should mobilize all efforts to implement the vaccination campaign according to the plan and schedule.

The hypothesis that the COVID-19 pandemic can originate from the Wuhan Institute of Virology is of great interest to the world. (Photo: CNN) Where is the “birthplace of COVID-19”? The laboratories at the Wuhan Institute of Virology are classified as the safest, or biosafety level 4 (BSL4). They are formulated to control dangerous bacteria and viruses that can cause serious diseases for which there is no cure or vaccine. The researchers here are all well-trained professionals and equipped with protective gear. “ The laboratory is equipped with an HVAC feeder system so viruses cannot escape through the exhaust, all wastes are treated with chemicals or high temperatures to ensure that no (pathogens) are still active. dynamic “, said Dr. Gregory Koblentz at George Mason University. In addition to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, there are still 59 similar scientific research institutions in the world. Meanwhile, there are no international standards specifying the level of safety, security and responsibility in the preservation of disease-carrying specimens at these facilities. The possibility of problems in these labs is entirely possible. This rate is even higher for the thousands of lower-level laboratories than the Wuhan research facilities scattered around the world. The laboratories at the Wuhan Institute of Virology are classified as the safest. (Photo: CNN) Man-made disaster A prime example of a disaster stemming from a laboratory accident is the human H1N1 virus. After the terrible pandemic of 1918, in 1977, the H1N1 epidemic once again leaked from the laboratories of the Soviet Union and China, then spread all over the world. In 2001, a mentally disturbed employee of a scientific laboratory in the US spread anthrax spores across the country, killing five people. In 2004, two Chinese researchers exposed to the SARS virus became the source of infection, one of the infected people died. In 2014, the US Food and Drug Administration discovered that some samples carried smallpox at risk of being released. Lynn Klotz, a senior fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Nuclear Nonproliferation, warned that scientific labs have posed many public health threats in history. history, and a similar situation is likely to repeat itself in the future. “ Human error accounts for more than 70% of laboratory incidents “, said Mr. Klotz. A prime example of a disaster stemming from a laboratory accident is the human H1N1 virus. Is Wuhan bat research dangerous? GOF research involves editing pathogens to make them more contagious, more dangerous, or easier to evade vaccines and treatments, all with the aim of improving measures against these pathogens. this disease. GOF has long been an area of ​​intense controversy. The US government, the largest funder of research on the link between COVID-19 and bats in Wuhan, disagrees with several independent scientists. They could not agree on whether this work should be classified as a GOF study. Epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch expressed concern about studying the SARS-CoV-2 virus in bats: I am afraid that it will create a new strain of virus that, although not deadly if infected by the laboratory staff, will cause a new pandemic.” . “ This research is unnecessary and does not contribute to drug or vaccine development ‘, said Professor Richard Ebright at Rutgers University, a longtime GOF expert. The US government also banned GOF research in 2014. The ban was relaxed in 2017, under which some cases will be considered to be allowed to operate based on the application of the research. However, the review process has been criticized as lacking transparency and unreliable. Leading US health experts Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health have denied the research on COVID-19 and Wuhan bats is of the GOF category, but independent scientists disagree with this. their statement. The US government is the largest funder of research on the link between COVID-19 and bats in Wuhan. (Photo: AP) There is currently no clear scientific evidence on whether the virus that causes the COVID-19 pandemic leaked from a laboratory. However, there is some indirect evidence in favor of this hypothesis: Wuhan is only about 1,600 km north of the bat cave containing the SARS-CoV-2 virus, scientists from Wuhan are also known to often frequent visits to bat caves to take samples. Alina Chan, an expert in molecular biology at the Broad Institute, said the SARS-CoV-2 virus does not grow quickly after infecting people. This is one of the signs that the virus came from the lab. Ms. Chan added that the research on the SARS-CoV-2 virus will not be abandoned even after the pandemic ends. On the contrary, this study can be further extended in the future.

Researchers wear protective gear at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Photo: Xinhua US President Joe Biden announced last week that the US intelligence community had questioned two possible origins of the COVID-19 pandemic: “Human contact with infected animals or a laboratory incident. “. He ordered a new investigation “to bring us closer to a final conclusion”. According to Bloomberg, no matter where the investigation leads, the history of laboratory safety shows that leakage of pathogens has happened, sometimes with deadly consequences. Smallpox virus leak By the late 1970s, smallpox had been eradicated from the wild, but research on the disease continues in several laboratories around the world, including one in Birmingham (UK). where a virulent strain of smallpox virus is handled. In the summer of 1978, a medical photographer working there named Janet Parker became ill. When pustules spread on her body, the local doctor diagnosed it as a severe case of smallpox. Victim Janet Parker in the smallpox virus leak from the laboratory. It was the third leak of the smallpox virus in that decade from a UK laboratory. The British government has drastically stopped the outbreak by urgently isolating hundreds of people and vaccinating many others. Thanks to those efforts, only one other person became infected, and that was Parker’s mother. However, the female photographer experienced a painful, lonely death in quarantine, and is believed to be the last known fatal victim of smallpox. But there are other victims of the incident. At that time the press mentioned the director of the laboratory in Birmingham, a smallpox virus expert named Henry Bedson. Although there was no evidence, the media still blamed him for the incident. Quarantined at home and in despair, Bedson slit his own throat and died shortly thereafter. The British government has organized a thorough investigation into the outbreak. An investigation found Mr Bedson may not have followed adequate safety procedures and speculated that Parker contracted smallpox from a virus that leaked into the gas pipeline. Technicians at a laboratory in Rockville, Maryland (USA), where smallpox vaccine is produced. A lawsuit later dismissed this explanation, and raised the disturbing possibility that Parker herself had entered one of the workspaces without proper protection. To this day, the debate over the Parker incident remains unresolved. Anthrax spores from the lab When laboratories let pathogens leak in a secret environment, it is much harder to confirm the source of the outbreak. A case in point is the anthrax outbreak in Sverdlovsk, a rather isolated city in the former Soviet Union. In 1979, rumors of anthrax killing dozens, even thousands, began to spread to the West. Later that year, Soviet newspapers confirmed some reports, noting that more than 100 people had contracted anthrax after eating contaminated meat, and over 60 had died. It was a tragedy, but perhaps unavoidable because anthrax is readily apparent in local animal populations. However, US intelligence officials are not convinced by that. Satellite images show disinfecting truck-like objects around the city, with a significant focus of activity on a mysterious military facility known as Complex 19. CIA analysts have reported hypothesized that the Soviet Union leaked a weaponized form of anthrax. The Soviets reacted indignantly to this allegation. In 1980, Russia’s official news agency Itar Tass published a rebuttal titled “A Seed of Deception,” accusing the US of making false statements to gain geopolitical advantage. Sverdlovsk was once one of the military secret cities of the Soviet era. Then, under the administration of President Ronald Reagan, the CIA sought to better handle what happened. They asked Matthew Meselson, a distinguished geneticist at Harvard who worked on the bioweapons ban program, to directly assess the evidence. Mr. Meselson was not convinced by the US intelligence findings. In the 1980s, he rejected another theory that the Soviet Union used some kind of fungal weapon in Laos – and he initially held the same view on the anthrax case, endorsing the main explanation. information from the Soviet Union, with one important caveat: Without a thorough investigation in Sverdlovsk, it would be impossible to know for certain what happened. Essentially, Mr. Meselson supported the explanation that the meat was tainted, judging it to be “completely reasonable and consistent” based on what was known about anthrax. He also arranged meetings with Soviet scientists to add credence to this interpretation, with slides of pathology samples taken from the victims. The US intelligence community, however, remains skeptical. And in this case, the intelligence agencies, not the scientists, turned out to be right. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Meselson and other researchers finally had access to pathological samples taken from the victims’ lungs, which showed they had died from inhaling anthrax spores. Subsequent revelations added to the picture of what happened. Turns out Complex 19 is a biological weapons facility. Here they produce anthrax spores. According to the Laboratory Director of Complex 19 at the time, a filter connected to the spore dryer was clogged. This still happens often. The military officer in charge left a message for his replacement on the next shift but did not enter the logbook as is customary. When it came to the next shift, the replacement team looked at the notebook, saw nothing, and restarted the purifier. A series of anthrax spores quickly spread throughout the vicinity. Mr. Meselson eventually pieced together all the data and published a paper in the journal Science, which combined wind data with interviews, pathological samples and other evidence to describe the outbreak. Coal killed more than 60 people. That was in 1994, 15 years after the incident. Mysterious flu virus leak In addition, there is another incident that took place in the Soviet Union that is still a mystery. In the same decade that witnessed the leaks of smallpox in Britain and anthrax in the Soviet Union, there was also an unusual strain of flu at the time, called H1N1. Laboratory virus leaks have had deadly consequences. Photo: Atlantis In 1977, an H1N1 outbreak broke out on the border between China and the Soviet Union. The epidemic eventually spread worldwide that year, causing an unusual proportion of young patients. The mortality rate from epidemics is relatively low compared to some strains of influenza. But that’s not the problem. The worrying aspect of the epidemic is that this particular strain of H1N1 has not been present since 1950, when it was superseded by other strains of influenza. The appearance of that kind of “back in time” was confusing. Some researchers speculate that the virus may have “escaped” from a laboratory in the Soviet Union or China, but both countries deny this theory. However, the matter remains a puzzle for virologists. Many theories have been born and come to explain the so-called “frozen evolution”, among which the most prominent is the hypothesis that the virus spread to humans from a laboratory, possibly testing a vaccine to neutralize the disease. swine flu. A scientist involved in the development of a vaccine. Photo: Reuters The exact origin of COVID-19 may not be known All of the above incidents occurred in the 1970s. Laboratory safety was expected to have improved since then, but that has not always been the case. After the SARS outbreak in 2003, laboratories around the world began studying the virus. Since that time, there have been no less than 6 laboratory leaks of SARS. The first occurred at the National University of Singapore, where a student contracted the virus from a sample of the virus. This was followed by an incident in Taiwan/China, where a researcher contracted the virus, possibly during the disinfection of waste products from the laboratory. After that, several leaks happened at the National Institute of Virology of China. In one incident, a researcher infected her mother with the virus, and she died of SARS. In all cases, human negligence, mainly exacerbated by inadequate safety protocols, was the cause of the pathogen leakage. History has supported the theories being put forward that the current COVID-19 pandemic may not have a natural origin, but we are not in a position to rush into judgment. When it comes to lab leaks, the investigation and review process often takes a long time, and sometimes the answers remain unsatisfactory and incomplete. In the case of the COVID pandemic, we must prepare for the possibility that the world may never know the exact origins of a pandemic that has claimed millions of lives.

Make it a habit to wash your hands. Hand washing protects health and saves lives. However, this can aggravate some skin lesions such as atopic dermatitis, contact dermatitis, psoriasis … if anyone has it, specifically making the skin drier, cracked, irritated, even even an infection. So what’s the advice: – Dry hands after each hand wash: After washing, dry your hands carefully with a clean towel or tissue, especially between your fingers, as bacteria are more easily transmitted between wet hands. – Use moisturizer to reduce the unwanted effects of heavy hand washing: Frequent hand washing can damage the skin barrier, leaving skin dry and cracked. So moisturizing the skin of the hands is the most important thing. Not only people with diseases but also those with healthy skin should take care of their skin. How to use moisturizer correctly: Take a pea-sized amount of cream, rub it all over your hands, paying attention to the fingertips as this is an easy place to dry and crack. Apply yin lotion after you’ve washed and dried your hands, or whenever your skin feels dry. Besides, you should consult a dermatologist about the right product. Avoid washing hands with hot water: Hot water will make the skin quickly dry and wrinkled, cracked, so only warm water should be used to wash your hands. – Wear rubber gloves When having to contact cleaning chemicals or working in a humid environment, the time to wear gloves should be as short as possible to avoid sweating hands, which aggravates skin damage. BSCKII. Bui Quang Hao ( Head of Infection Control Department, National Hospital of Dermatology )