A factory worker falls ill, and tests for bird flu come back positive. Company directors begin emergency measures, quarantining the employee's co-workers, distributing masks, and disinfecting the area. A team of doctors, clad in complete protection gear, races to the area to evacuate the victim.

Sunday, the sense of urgency was real enough though the danger was not, as Vietnam conducted its second large-scale bird flu drill to test the country's readiness to battle a possible pandemic. The country's first major drill was in Hanoi last month.

About 500 people participated in Sunday's exercise on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City at a high school in the city's Cu Chi district. Under the mock scenario, dozens of people fell sick and local officials were forced to act quickly to contain possible infections.

Bird flu has killed at least 71 people in the region, more than half of them in Vietnam. The H5N1 strain of the virus has also ravaged poultry stocks across Asia since 2003, killing or forcing the slaughter of hundreds of millions of birds.

Health experts fear the current virus could mutate into a form easily spread among people, sparking a global pandemic that kills millions. So far, most infections have been traced back to contact with sick birds.

Before the two-hour exercise began, Health Minister Tran Thi Trung Chien, who observed from the sidelines, called for the utmost vigilance in preparing for the worst.

"As the H5N1 virus is too dangerous and the risk of a bird flu pandemic is very high, we need to prepare everything to battle the bird flu," she said.

During the elaborate exercise, the factory was informed that a factory worker had become sick with suspected bird flu after visiting her village. Investigations turned up another 60 people who had direct contact with her and 20 of them showed signs of illness.

The grounds of the sprawling high school, turned into a field hospital, became the center of action with temporary cots set up for about a dozen patients. The local people's committee of Cu Chi held urgent meetings and decided to go door to door in the province to inform residents. Public speakers, radio announcements and TV spots were used to keep the public informed and hold off panic.

The World Health Organization has encouraged countries to draft national pandemic preparedness plans. International health experts have praised Vietnam's initiative in setting up simulations across the country.

"The drills are essential," WHO epidemiologist Peter Horby said. "It's one thing to write a plan on paper but it's not until you actually try to implement the plan that you begin to see where there may be limitations and difficulties and constraints."

There is no indication that the strain will mutate in the near future, Horby said. "But it's a good time to be doing the drill because we're in a period (where) we think there may be high risk so at least the scenarios will be fresh in people's minds if something does happen in the coming months."

(Source: AP)