Doctors have warned that now that borders have been reopened, there is a risk of 'imported malaria'

Doctors at Hanoi's Bch Mai Hospital are treating two malaria patients who recently returned from Angola.

For years, Hanoi and the northern provinces have had virtually no malaria cases, making it difficult to discover, diagnose, and treat malaria patients who have returned from abroad.

Nguyn nh Th., a 38-year-old Hà Tnh resident, recently returned from Angola.

He spent 12 years in Angola. He had a fever, tremors, and headaches five days before being taken to the hospital. Afternoon fevers are accompanied by uneasy urination and loose stools.

The patient was sent to a local hospital, but doctors were unable to diagnose him, so he was moved to the Centre for Tropical Diseases.

Doctors identified the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum in his blood based on epidemiological characteristics.

A 6-month-pregnant woman is the second patient in Hanoi. She recently returned to Hanoi after eight years in Angola.

She had a high temperature and severe chills three days before to admission.

A fever, nausea, vomiting, and headaches plagued her.

After being admitted for tests, she travelled to a private facility and was diagnosed with malaria.

She was referred to the Centre for Tropical Diseases because of her pregnancy and low platelet count.

According to the centre's director, Associated Professor Duy Cng, both individuals suffered fever after returning to Vietnam, but local healthcare services failed to notice that they had been in Africa and thus missed the disease.

Because of its peculiar symptoms, malaria can be mistaken for flu, COVID-19, dengue fever, or urinary infection, according to Cng.

"Malaria has been successfully controlled in Vietnam in recent years due to good malaria control programmes in areas and adequate malarial treatments," Cng explained, "therefore infection and fatality rates have significantly fallen."

"The disease has now been restricted to Tây Nguyên and the surrounding areas in the south."

It's called "imported" malaria since the centre just received many African malaria cases.

According to the doctor, it was due to a lot of travel and the return of Vietnamese flights from Africa, mainly Angola, after COVID-19.

Malaria patients returning from Africa, notably Angola, have prompted numerous cautions in recent years.

Because malaria is a potentially lethal disease, these people must disclose their epidemiological characteristics, assess their health, and get tested.

The doctor added, "We'd seen numerous cases of acute malaria with a persistently high fever, which can result in a three- to five-day coma."

"Coma patients can develop liver, renal, and lung failure, as well as anaemia, convulsions, and hypoglycemia," he pointed out.

If treated quickly, organ functioning will recover with the correct drugs.

Under the Ministry of Health's malaria prevention and control programme, artesunate and arterakin are provided.