Vietnamese health authorities are seeking help from international experts in identifying an unusual skin condition — suspected to be caused by agrochemicals — that has plagued the central province of Quang Ngai since last year, Tuoi Tre reported Thursday.

Nguyen Trong Khoa, deputy chief of the Ministry of Health’s Medical Services Administration, told the newspaper that his agency too planned to study the condition that had affected more than 150 people and killed two children as of last December.

Patients have ulcers on their hands and feet that look like they were caused by severe burns, stiffness in the limbs, and, in serious cases, liver damage.

Local health officials have linked the condition with plant protection chemicals.

Tuoi Tre said Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Xuyen recently approved a regimen for diagnosing and treating the condition.

It says mild symptoms can be treated with ointments, anti-inflammation drugs, and vitamins together with a dietary regime and liver supplements.

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Those with severe symptoms have to be admitted to hospital for treatment.

The regimen also advises people to wash their hands and feet after coming back from fields and avoid coming in contact with plant protection chemicals.

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The US Agency for International Development (USAID) donated equipment used to detect tuberculosis to the Vietnam National Tuberculosis Program (VNTP) on Monday, as part of a US$4 million project.

Early detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and resistance to the antibiotic drug rifampicin (known as Xpert MTB/RIF) used to treat it, will help control the transmission of TB, as it reduces the amount of time it takes to be detected from several months to just two hours.

According to USAID, they will provide the VNTP with 17 laboratory diagnostic tools and and more than 12,000 testing kits this year.

The $4 million TB Care I project, which aims to reduce the mortality rate of tuberculosis through early diagnosis and treatment, will be implemented within two years. It is funded by the USAID and the KNVC Tuberculosis Foundation.

According to the World Health Organization, Vietnam ranks 12th among 22 countries for the highest rates of TB in the world. Annually, 180,000 Vietnamese become infected with TB. However, less than 100,000 of those cases are detected in time to be treated.

A Hanoian lost his left eye after a golf ball hit his face while playing golf, according to the Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology.

The hospital said Tuesday the man, whose name was withheld, was discharged from the hospital one day earlier, with his left eye blinded by a broken eyeball and cornea. His right eye was normal.

The man, in his 50s, was playing golf at the Dong Mo golf course in Ba Vi District late last month when a ball hit his face from a 10 meter distance.

It was such a strong hit that it broke his eyeball immediately, said Dr Nguyen Quoc Anh of the Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology.

Anh said it was a rare accident, adding the hospital had recently attended to eye injuries cases caused when playing tennis and badminton.

Most of the patients are middle aged people who play sports in the twilight after work, and the accidents were usually caused by poor eyesight, he said.

The Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang has become the third province in Vietnam to report bird flu outbreak this year, the Department of Animal Health reported Sunday.

The agency made the statement just over two months after announcing that the epidemic had been curbed, along with foot-and-mouth disease in cattle.

According to the department, 90 chickens in Soc Trang’s My Xuyen District have become ill or have died, adding that it has provided two million doses of the bird flu vaccine to the province in order to stop the recurrence from spreading.

Last week, central provinces of Thanh Hoa and Quang Tri also reported hundreds of cases of sick or dead fowl.

Health experts warned there is a high likelihood the disease will spread widely in the near future because the A/H5N1 virus in northern Vietnam has mutated and effective vaccines are not yet available.

Since the beginning of this year Vietnam has recorded two human fatalities caused by bird flu – an 18-year-old man in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang and a 26-year-old woman in Soc Trang Province, also in the Mekong Delta.

The cases occurred after nearly 20 months of no reported cases of humans contracting the A/H5N1 virus.

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According to a World Bank report in October last year, Vietnam was among the countries most affected by H5N1, with 119 human cases confirmed as of March 2011, of which 59 were fatal.

Since 2003, bird flu outbreaks have killed and led to the forced culling of tens of millions of fowl in Vietnam.

The World Health Organization ranked Vietnam the country second most affected by bird flu after Indonesia.

A 26-year-old woman in the southern province of Soc Trang has become the second to die from the bird flu virus (A/H5N1) this year, the Ministry of Health said Wednesday.

According to the ministry’s Department of Preventive Health, epidemic inspections showed that the victim had killed and eaten sick chickens, and that chickens had been found dead around her home earlier.

A report on Tuoi Tre said she had a check-up at Thanh Tri District’s hospital on January 23 with fever and cough

Since the symptoms did not lessen, she was transferred to Bac Lieu Province’s General Hospital two days later and was diagnosed with viral pneumonia, it said.

She died on January 28, and tests conducted by the Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute’s Influenza Center showed that she was inflicted with the A/H5N1 virus, according to the report.

Last month Vietnam recorded its first H5N1 death of the new year – an 18-year-old boy in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang. It was also the first human case to be reported in the country after a reprieve of nearly 20 months from the last reported cases.

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According to a World Bank report in October last year, Vietnam was among the countries most affected by H5N1, with 119 human cases confirmed as of March 2011, of which 59 were fatal.

Since 2003, bird flu outbreaks have killed and led to the forced culling of tens of millions of fowl in Vietnam.

The World Health Organization ranked Vietnam the second most affected country after Indonesia.

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Three high-profile Vietnamese patients who had successful treatment for unusual conditions this year are having their happiest Tet in a very long time.

Nguyen Duy Hai, 32, is recovering at FV Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City after a 82-kilogram tumor was removed from one side of his body earlier this month.

The two women who aged rapidly due to rare dermal conditions, Nguyen Thi Phuong from the poor Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre, and Nguyen Thi Ngoc Mai of Hoi An, are getting better.

The young women made headlines last October with photos showing them looking 30-50 years older than they actually were.

Hai said “This Tet I have the biggest joy of my life. I feel a lightness. I have got rid of the giant tumor that I had to carry for 30 years.

“To be able to live a normal life like other people is amazing.”

His mother Nguyen Thi Cho Con said though they celebrated Tet in the hospital, “the festival never felt happier.”

Hai was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis type I, formerly known as von Recklinghausen’s Disease, a genetic disorder. But he has been free of the biggest tumor ever known in Vietnam thanks to a 10-hour operation led by US plastic surgeon McKay McKinnon on January 5.

Doctors are surprised at the speed of Hai’s recovery, after he became stable just six days after the surgery instead of the several weeks they had expected.

They suggested that his recovery was psychosomatic, attributing it to his desire for a normal life.

Hai and his mother had some sweetened fruits on New Year’s Eve. He said he loves other Tet delicacies such as glutinous rice cakes and pickled onions but is on a strict diet.

His room is visited frequently by doctors and nurses, and is filled with laughter and animated conversation about his future plans.

After being discharged he will continue to get physiotherapy until he can walk, and he said he would then learn a job to take care of himself since his mother is old.

Younger

Phuong, 27, said the festival this year had been special to her and her husband.

She was discharged from hospital in mid-December and has been taking drugs since. Doctors will soon resume treatment.

The treatment began after skin samples sent to Baylor University in Texas, the US, confirmed that Phuong had two conditions – cutis laxa, a group of rare connective tissue disorders in which the skin becomes inelastic and hangs loosely in folds, and mastocytosis, a rare disorder caused by the presence of too many mast cells.

“This Tet I feel like having a burden lifted. I’m getting younger for the new year, and so feel more comfortable about meeting my relatives and neighbors,” Phuong said.

Her husband Nguyen Thanh Tuyen said he is trying to help her interact normally with people.

He said they had the happiness of celebrating the festival with other people. “We could join our families in visiting graves, sit with them at the New Year’s Eve party, and visit their homes,” he said.

Mai, 28, also said her spirit was up since her condition improved after free treatment at Hoan My Hospital in Da Nang last October.

“Thanks to the media, many people have helped me, the hospital has helped me. I think that since others have not given up on me, I should not give up.”

During the New Year many strangers called on her just to show their support.

Mai’s mother Nguyen Thi Mut said “People’s attention has cheered up my daughter. Tet this year has been happier than ever.”

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Meningitis is spreading in Ho Chi Minh City with 11 cases of people being infected this month, most of them children.

The cases have been reported at eight remote districts, five before the Lunar New Year on January 23 and six during the holiday.

Doctor Tran Phu Manh Sieu, director of HCMC Preventive Health Center, told news website VnExpress in a Tuesday report that “All the patients are in stable condition. Their living areas have been sterilized.”

Sieu said doctors have not traced back the cause of all the infections and as far as doctors are aware, those infected have not spread the disease to anyone else.

Thus, the scattered cases are under control, he said.

The doctor warned about some hot spots for the disease to spread, including schools, industrial zones and workers’ rental houses. The contagious condition spreads through respiratory system.

He advised people to keep better personal hygiene and quickly have an examination if they develop a fever or a sore throat, typical symptoms of meningitis, which is caused by the Neisseria meningitides bacterium and can lead to brain inflammation and blood infection.

Between 10-20 percent of healthy people have the bacterium in the fluid under their throat but the bacterium does not necessarily develop into the disease.

Doctors in the city said the condition affects children throughout the year, but more around the Tet.

Four other cases were reported in Hanoi and the three southern provinces of Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc and Long An, news website VietNamNet said in a report Tuesday.

All cases are among children, ranging in age from 3.5 months to four years. They are all currently hospitalized and in stable condition.

No deaths have been confirmed as having been caused by the bacterium, but the condition has been suspected of killing an 11-month-old baby from central Vietnam on January 20. Doctors are still testing and have yet to determine the official cause of death.

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A teenage duck farmer in southern Vietnam has been killed by the bird flu virus this month, a doctor said at a meeting with Ho Chi Minh City Health Department Wednesday.

Le Van N. of Hau Giang Province in the Mekong Delta was hospitalized January 10 with high fever and fatigue but died a day after,  the Tien Phong newspaper reported, quoting Le Hoang San, deputy head of the Pasteur Institute in HCMC.

His blood samples had been sent to the Pasteur Institute and the result, released Tuesday, found the boy tested positive for the H5N1 virus, San said.

The 18-year-old was the first victim of the virus in southern Vietnam and the first avian flu fatality in the country this year, after nearly a year when no human infection with the virus was reported.

Since 2003, bird flu outbreaks have killed and led to the forced culling of tens of millions of fowls in Vietnam.

According to a World Bank report in October last year, Vietnam was among the countries most affected by H5N1, with 119 human cases confirmed as of March 2011, of which 59 died.

The World Health Organization ranked Vietnam the second most affected country after Indonesia.

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Thirty people in Ho Chi Minh City have tested positive for the bacterium that causes meningitis, which could be fatal if left untreated, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported Tuesday.

The paper quoted Tran Phu Manh Sieu, director of the HCMC Center for Preventive Health, as saying that the cases were detected among workers of the Japanese-owned Furukawa Automotive Parts Vietnam’s factory in Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone, District 7.

Following the discovery, the center has prescribed antibiotics for all 6,200 workers of the factory to prevent the spread of Neisseria meningitides – the bacterium that causes meningitis, it said.

Those people who have fever will be asked to take rest at local health clinics and not return to work so as to curb the spread of the disease.

According to the report, from Tuesday local agencies will start inspections at other factories in Tan Thuan and launch campaigns to raise local workers’ awareness about the disease.

Since last December HCMC has recorded six cases suffering from brain inflammation caused by the bacterium.

The latest was that of  a 22-year-old student, the VnExpress newswire reported Saturday.

According to the report, the student of the People Police School 2 in District 9 was admitted to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases on January 10 with fever and the symptoms of meningitis. He tested positive for Neisseria meningitides four days later. 

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The VnExpress report said the student, whose identity wasn’t revealed, is currently in stable health condition.

It quoted Sieu as saying that to prevent the contagious bacterium, they have prescribed antibiotics for all the students of the school for five days and sterilize the school.

Another case was also reported in the northern province of Nam Dinh last Friday.

Sieu said since people mainly contract the bacterium via respiratory system, respiratory hygiene is needed. He recommended people clean their throat with saline solution or medical throat cleansers three times per day, stressing that it is a simple yet effective way to protect oneself against the disease.

Nguyen Viet Anh, 5, before (L) and 110 days after getting a bone marrow transplant to treat epidermolysis bullosa (EB) at the National Hospital of Pediatrics in Hanoi

Vietnam has become only the second country in the world to successfully use stem cell transplant to treat Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), an inherited connective tissue disease caused by problems with chemicals that cement the layers of skin together.

Nguyen Viet Anh, a five-year-old boy with EB from the northern province of Vinh Phuc, was discharged from the Hanoi-based National Hospital of Pediatrics hospital on January 6 after a successful bone marrow transplant to cure lethal skin blisters last September.

He has totally recovered and is able to walk by himself, and most of the skin lesions on his body have disappeared.

Professor Nguyen Thanh Liem, who performed the transplant, said the boy has been given anti-rejection drugs and would undergo periodical checkups after returning home.

Anh was taken to various hospitals since he was born, but there was no hope that a treatment was available for his rare condition.

The boy was born blazing red with ulcerations in both hands and no skin or nails on the big toes, his family said.

He was diagnosed with EB, which ranges from mild to lethal but always involves a lot of pain as the skin becomes extremely fragile.

Children with EB lack type VII collagen, a protein that serves as the glue affixing the top layer of skin to the next. Friction — from a hug to a fall — can cause blisters the size of water balloons, which often leave behind scabs and scars. Children with EB are often confused with burn victims.

More blisters appeared as Anh grew up and the skin somehow formed a tight covering over his hands and feet.

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On September 19, 2011 Prof. Liem led the procedure to conduct a bone marrow transplant with the marrow taken from his 10-year-old sister.

Forty days after the transplant Anh’s mother had said 80 percent of existing blisters were gone while fresh ones were smaller and healed faster.

Prof. Liem said Anh’s skin biopsy showed the presence of type VII collagen, indicating he no longer has the disease.

The world’s first successful transplant was made for Payton Thornton, a five-year-old boy, by doctors at the University of Minnesota in the United States.

Rising hopes

The day Anh was released from hospital, the National Hospital of Pediatrics said it had performed a second bone marrow transplant, this time on Le Anh Tu, a three-year-old boy, with marrow taken from his five-year-old sister.

Tu’s condition had been worse than Anh’s, with more blisters and a lot of ulceration in his eyes which would severely affect his eyesight and even cause blindness without early treatment.

Tu is reported to be rather well after the transplant.

“We will try to make bone marrow transplants to treat EB a normal procedure,” Prof. Liem told Vietweek Tuesday.

“Transplants at the University of Minnesota cost up to US$1 million; it costs just $25,000-30,000 in Vietnam.

“We will need to perform at least 10-20 transplants to prove the procedure a success,” Liem said.

The National Hospital of Pediatrics did both transplants free of charge, and plans to perform a third on a 17-year-old patient next May.

The challenges in doing transplants to treat EB include infection risks and the cost for poor families, as the hospital could not afford more free-of-charge transplants, Liem said.

Though Anh would be monitored closely for at least six months after the transplant, the surgery provided hope for around 60 children with EB who are undergoing treatment at the National Hospital of Pediatrics, he said.

“However, the problem is finding money for the treatment since most patients’ families are unable to afford the expenses,” he told Vietweek.

He also said that he received more phone calls every week from families of other children with EB.