HCMC checking visitors for new flu virus TUOITRENEWS   A market inspector checks ducks at a wholesale poultry market in Ha Vy village, outside Hanoi April 5, 2013.  Ho Chi Minh City health authorities have called on concerned agencies to take necessary measures, including checking visitors’ body temperatures at control points, to cope with the latest bird flu strain H7N9 that has killed six people in China. Accordingly, as of today, April 6, visitors to HCMC via Tan Son Nhat Airport will have their body temperatures measured by tele-thermometers for detection of abnormality. Those whose body temperatures are above 37 degree Celsius are required to make a health declaration under instructions of health officers, said Dr Nguyen Hoai Nam, head of the Medical Affairs of the HCMC Health Department. “We will check precautions at the airport against the latest bird flu strain H7N9 this morning. All foreigners, especially those who come from countries with H7N9 virus, will be strictly checked,” Dr Nam said. Visitors who get a fever will be taken to separate rooms where they will be given medical examinations necessary for detection of the H7N9 virus, said a representative of the International Quarantine Center. The health department requested health workers at border checkpoints take samples of those who get pneumonia suspected to be caused by the deadly virus and send the samples to the Pasteur Institute for testing. Similar precautions have also been carried out at Noi Bai international airport in Hanoi, where two temperature scanners are currently in operation, to prevent the spread of the virus into Vietnam. The Health Ministry called on everybody not to eat poultry that was of unclear origin or died of bird flu or unknown cause. Yesterday, the Worls Health Organization (WHO) in Vietnam confirmed that there is no evidence that the virus can be transmitted from human to human. In China, authorities of Shanghai yesterday closed the city’s live poultry markets after the number of deaths from a new bird flu climbed to six, according to Shanghai Daily. The authorities have also ordered the slaughter of all birds at a market where the H7N9 flu virus was found in pigeons being sold for meat. The Chinese national avian flu laboratory has confirmed that the virus found in the pigeons was highly congenetic with that found in patients infected with H7N9 virus, according to China’s Ministry of Agriculture. China so far has confirmed 14 cases of H7N9 infection, with symptoms including fever and respiratory problems, including severe pneumonia. Presently, there are no known vaccines against the H7N9 strain.