Vietnam admits 4 malaria patients among Africa arrivals

Bach Mai Hospital, a major public facility in Hanoi, said it is treating two patients with malaria returning from Angola late last month.

One of them is a 38-year-old man in the central province of Ha Tinh who lived in Angola for 12 years. He suffered from high fever, chills, headache, and diarrhea and was first hospitalized in Ha Tinh, but the conditions only worsened. He was then transferred to Hanoi and blood tests at Bach Mai hospital confirmed he was infected with the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

The other patient is a 32-year-old pregnant woman in Hanoi who was in Angola for eight years and also had malaria last year. She went to a private clinic after having fever, headache, sweats and chills. She was then tested with malaria and transferred to Bach Mai.

Doctor Do Duy Cuong at Bach Mai said Vietnam has successfully controlled malaria in recent years and there were almost no local cases recorded in northern Vietnam.

The two other patients under treatment at HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases are also its first malaria cases in nearly two years.

They are a 24-year-old female student returning from Cameroon and a 63-year-old Chinese man coming from the Ivory Coast, doctors said Friday.

Doctor Ho Dang Trung Nghia at the hospital said the woman started having fever a day after returning to Vietnam while the Chinese man was already feverish on the flight. Tests later confirmed they were infected with malaria.

"Both are being treated in the ICU with malaria medication and many other measures," Nghia said.

Vietnam aims to eliminate malaria by 2030.