Tightened supervision has been called for newly emerging diseases,including avian influenza strains H1N1, H5N1, H7N9, dengue fever andhand-foot-mouth, which hit the country hard in the first six months of2013.

The warning came from experts as the healthsector found several diseases remained prominent in H1, especially thenumber of avian influenza H1N1 infection cases.

Statistics showed the avian influenza H1N1 virus was detected in 44percent of flu cases, in 52 percent of patients with acute respiratoryinfections and in 73 percent of serious pneumonia cases, according to areport by the Ministry of Health's Preventive Medicine Department.

However, the rate of positive H1N1 samples has started to decreasesince the last week of July, said department deputy director Tran DacPhu at a conference on August 20.

Phu explained thatthe surge of H1N1 cases in 2013 may have been caused by disease cyclesand the seasonal characteristics of the flu virus.

"The leaders of some provinces and cities haven't paid enough attentionto disease prevention," said Phu, stressing cooperation betweenpreventive and treatment units was weak in some localities while somehospitals were slow to report transmission disease cases, making itdifficult for preventive units to carry out effective protectionmeasures for communities.

Phu added that newlyemerging diseases prevention has also faced difficulties due to thecomplicated development of diseases and peoples' inadequate awareness ofdisease prevention.

The department also stated thecountry reported nearly 37,800 cases of hand-foot-mouth (HFM) disease,including 13 fatalities across nine provinces and cities in the firstsix months of 2013, a decline of 40 percent year-on-year.

Vietnam also recorded more than 20,500 dengue fever cases and 14fatalities, a decline of nearly 23 percent compared to the same periodlast year.

However, dengue infection cases increasedin some localities, such as the central provinces of Khanh Hoa and PhuYen and the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak.-VNA