Ministry issues new treatment plan for bizarre skin disease | Look At Vietnam

Ministry issues new treatment plan for bizarre skin disease

May 7, 2012

The Ministry of Health in Vietnam has brought out a new method to treat the bizarre and mysterious skin disease that is affecting residents in the central province of Quang Ngai, along with issuing warnings of further complications.

The new treatment method will replace the old plan that was issued in January 2012. From now on patients with mild inflictions can be treated by applying a cream containing corticoid and 2 per cent salicylic ointment all over their body, which will keep the skin moist and soft.
However, patients that are more seriously affected must be taken to the general hospital in the province or a bigger hospital in the city.
All doctors, irrespective of their division, must take part in diagnosing these patients. In case the patients suffer from kidney and liver failure, doctors must filter their blood and try and save lives.
The ministry also warned against complications such as blood bacterial contamination, pneumonia, lestospira-spirochaete bacteria, encephalitis, convulsion fits and even coma.
Quang Ngai Province had so far reported 180 cases of the yet unidentified skin disease, with eight persons having died at medical clinics and 11 at home.
SGGP

Kidney trading gang jailed for 5 to 6 years | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

Kidney trading gang jailed for 5 to 6 years

November 24, 2011 about Uncategorized

LookAtVietnam - The People’s Court in Can Tho City on Tuesday sentenced four members of a kidney-trading ring to prison for five to six years each on charges of “organising people to flee the country”.

The four kidney sale brokers in court. (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

Organ trading is a crime in Viet Nam, but in this case, the criminal activity took place across the border in China. Thus, the court tried the case on a different charge.

The court handed down a six-year prison sentence each to Vo Dinh Van, a 25-year-old resident of HCM City’s Go Vap District and La Thi Thinh, 40, a resident of Bac Giang Province’s Son Dong District.

Le Son Truyen, 27, from southwestern Tay Ninh Province’s Duong Minh Chau District, and Quang Dai Vang, 24, from central Ninh Thuan Province’s Ninh Phuoc District were sentenced to five years each on the same charge.

The court also demanded the confiscation of illegal profits of VND98 million from Van, VND30 million from Truyen, VND21 million from Vang, and VND5.7 million from Thinh.

According to the court’s verdict, in early 2008, Van and Truyen were taken to China to sell their kidneys.

Van and Truyen became the first members of the ring to sell their kidneys to two Chinese traders whose details have not been released.

Van and Truyen were introduced to Thinh, who took people willing to sell their kidneys to Guangzhou Province in China.

For each person taken to the Chinese province, Thinh received 100 yuan (VND300,000 or US$15) from Van and Truyen.

Vang became a member of the ring after selling his kidney in China in 2009. Vang received VND3 million ($150) for each person he successfully took to China.

In February this year, Vang was arrested in Can Tho when he was on his way to take a Can Tho resident to China to sell his kidney.

The other members of the ring were discovered after Vang’s arrest.

According to the court’s verdict, from 2008 to February this year, the four members of the ring who have been sentenced to prison took 19 poor Vietnamese nationals from HCM City and southern provinces to China to sell their kidneys.

They earned profits of over VND150 million ($US7,300). Each kidney was sold for VND40 million to VND50 million ($2,410) with all travel and accommodation expenses paid by Chinese traders.

For each person taken to China, the brokers got VND10 million ($483).

According to medical exams conducted on three victims of the ring, the organ sale had damaged 41 per cent of their health, according to police’s investigation.

In 2008, a 22-year-old Vietnamese student died at his home in Ninh Thuan Province after selling his kidneys in China several months earlier.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News



Kidney trading gang jailed for 5 to 6 years | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

Turns down $50,000 to donate kidney to poor girl

Samaritan turns down $50,000 to donate kidney to a poor girl 

January 10, 2011  about Sci-Tech

Vu Quoc Tuan at the 8th national patriot festival in Hanoi.

Vu Quoc Tuan has not had an easy life himself, but is firmly in the business of saving lives -  and expects no reward in return.
His incredible humanity has seen him donate a kidney to a poor girl for free, refusing an offer of US$50,000 made by a better-off family.
Tuan’s story came to light when the 38-year-old native of Phu Tho was honoured at the 8th National Patriots Festival held in Hanoi  on Monday (December 27).
He was working as a guard at the Hanoi Children’s Hospital when Tuan was moved on seeing Ta Thi Thu Ha, 18, the same age as his daughter, struggling with kidney failure. It was the year 2008 and Ha had been suffering for at least six years then.
Learning that the family was poor, with the father a war invalid and the mother the sole breadwinner working as a vendor, he decided to give the girl one of his own kidneys.
When he started to undergo examinations in March 2008 to prepare for the surgery, a family from nearby Hai Phong visited him and offered to pay $50,000 for the kidney, but Tuan told them he had to give it to a niece.
“You have money, so you can find [the kidney] at many places, but if I don’t give the kidney to my niece, she will die,” Tuan said.
Tuan was born to a poor farming family and quit college after one month to take care of his family after his father died of sickness. He said he has been working different jobs around the northern region, thus has a special sympathy for poor people.
Doctors at the hospital were surprised by his decision to donate. No one that they know of had ever donated a kidney to a total stranger.
The donation was made after more than 60 tests were done between March and October 2008, during which time Tuan had to undergo the pain of needles several times, including into his spinal cord.
He had to borrow money to raise his children during the period as the examinations kept him too busy to go to work. His wife, a guest worker in Malaysia, was also struggling there because of the global economic crisis.
The transplant was successful but Tuan didn’t accept a single dong from Ha’s family, though they wished to give him some to help his recovery.
He now has a desk job at the Mechanics Company No.17 under the Ministry of Defense. The company director, Chu The Thinh, offered him the job after the surgery weakened him and he could no longer afford to do hard labor.
Not the first time
Tuan’s job as a guard at the Children’s Hospital was also the result of his second nature - helping others in trouble.
In 2007, he saved a child from two fighting buffalos on the street and was hospitalized with rib fractures.
At the hospital, Tuan offered to donate blood to a girl who needed an emergency operation. The hospital was short of blood, and Tuan, being a universal donor (O group), gladly donated his. The girl’s family found out where he lived and tried to pay him, but he refused. So they helped him get the position.
When working as a hospital guard, Tuan has been known for helping patients’ relatives look for rental homes.
Earlier, when working at construction sites, Tuan had several times carried pregnant women to the hospital for delivery.
And when he was a xe om driver, he often transported poor people for free.
“Every time I see a person in need of help, I just think that if I don’t do anything, they will die. I myself am unhappy, so I understand their situation,” Tuan said.

Source: Thanh Nien 

Lively underground for internal organs Vietnam

"Vietnamese law forbids trade in internal organs but there seems to be a lively underground market, reports the local media.



Deputy PM asks investigate into illegal kidney-trading ring

Donors still wary despite need for organs

Strides in organ transplants reflect progress in nation's healthcare



Kidney patients at Hanoi's Bach Mai hospital (photo: Dan Tri)



Vernacular newspapers have reported that two young men were recently handing out leaflets at the gate of the Army Hospital 108 in Hanoi, each offering one of his kidneys for 50 million dong ($4500). This news has attracted attention to the underground trade in internal organs, particularly kidneys.



VnExpress reported that the two men who advertised to sell their kidneys were from nearby Hai Duong province. First they tried to sell their kidneys to hospitals to raise money to pay their parents’ debts. The hospitals turned them away because what they proposed is illegal. Resolved to find a buyer, the men turned to handing out leaflets.



This may be the first case of its type in Vietnam. However, there are many online offers to buy and sell kidneys on the Internet and there is also a “real market” for kidneys, as reporters from VnExpress, Dan Tri and Tuoi Tre newspapers have found out.



“I’m 24 and very healthy. My blood type is O+. I want to donate a kidney. Please contact me by email, vodanh.. @yahoo.com for details” read an advertisement on raovat.com, Vietnam’s clone of EBay.



The kidney seller told reporters that he is a student who had to quit school because he didn’t have money to pay school fees. He is in debt.



“My life is at a standstill. I know that it (selling a kidney) is not good for my health but I have made my decision. I wish to deal directly with the patient who needs my kidney because I don’t want to enrich go-betweens,” he wrote.



Many people posted their mobile phone numbers. This kind of ad is often short, like: “I need to sell a kidney at the price of 50 million dong, blood type B-, 21 years old, healthy. Contact: 0916…).



Tuoi Tre answered an online ad to make contact with a pharmaceutical company employee in HCM City named L, who said he could put people in touch with would-be kidney sellers.



“I hunted for a kidney for my nephew on the Internet. First I met a man in District 4 (HCM City) but he looked like a drug addict so I didn’t dare deal with him. Later I met two students, a male and a female from Can Tho University but my uncle couldn’t afford their price; they asked for a hundred million dong. I still have their phone numbers. If you like, I will give them to you,” this man told the Tuoi Tre reporters.



With L’s information, Tuoi Tre contacted ‘M’ from Can Tho University by phone. M said that he recently had to stop studying because his family couldn’t support his studies anymore. He is the third child of a farmer family in Kien Giang, a lower Delta province.



“My family is deep in debt so I decided to sell one of my kidneys for 100-120 million dong to save my family,” he said. The student said he is not worried for his health because he have done some research. He knows that a person has two kidneys but can live with only one kidney.



‘L’ commented that “M’s circumstance is very pitiful. If you buy his kidney, you should be responsible for his health in the future. If you decide to buy his kidney, we can see each other to make a written commitment on kidney donation and health assistance for him. I’m willing to be the third party to guarantee the commitment”.



VnExpress also discovered online kidney selling advertisements. A man in HCM City posted this ad: “Need to buy a kidney to save a man, at high price. My brother is now in the last stage of kidney failure. Anybody who wants to sell me a kidney please call 094…. My brother’s blood type is B.”



VNExpress called this man and he told the reporter that his brother had been saved, thanks to the advertisement. He said many people had called him offering their kidneys at from 20 to 70 million dong. To make it ‘legal,’ I “just went to the hospital to get a verification of kidney donation,” the man told VNExpress.



Tuoi Tre reporters mixed with the crowds outside two HCMC hospitals, People’s Hospital 115 and Cho Ray Hospital, to investigate. Some motorbike taxi drivers at People’s Hospital 115 recommended two kidney “brokers” named K and D.



They found D at the gate of the People’s Hospital 115. D told a Tuoi Tre reporter to give him his phone number, promising to call later if he found a seller. D said that a kidney might cost up to 300 million dong.



Tuoi Tre also learned that two men named V and N are notorious among kidney brokers. N is a taxi driver near the People’s Hospital 115. He has a list of poor people who regularly sell their blood. When N has a buyer for a kidney, he will persuade a blood seller to sell their kidney. N buys a kidney for 50-60 million dong then sells the organ to a recipient for over 300 million dong.



What do doctors say?



Tuoi Tre's reporter met with a 'kidney broker' named D (on motorbike) at the gate of the People’s Hospital 115 in HCM City (Photo: Tuoi Tre)



Dr. Nguyen Cao Luan, a nephrologist (kidney specialist) at Hanoi’s Bach Mai Hospital, says that kidney selling advertisements are very common. Many young people approach his staff to offer their kidneys. They are turned away with the explanation that organ sales are illegal.



Dr. Luan says that most of the kidneys used in transplant operations in Vietnam are donated by the patients’ relatives. Some patients purchase kidneys and go to China for operations. They can also declare the kidney sellers to be their relatives to make the affairs ‘legal.’ Luan notes that if hospitals carefully verify transplant cases and refuse to operate on suspect cases, the kidney trade will be prevented.



“It is a fact that many people dodge the law to sell their kidneys,” Luan explained. “According to regulations, kidney donors have to submit their ID card, etc. but this procedure is not followed in some hospitals. Doctors always want to save their patients. If the kidneys are suitable, they rationalize the decision to transplant them.”



Dr. Luan considers it normal that people offer to sell their kidneys because the need for the organs is acute and it is not a bad thing to sell kidneys. He also said that it will be good for both kidney sellers and buyers if there were both a law regulating kidney selling and a kidney bank in Vietnam.



Doctor Ta Phuong Dung from People’s Hospital 115 says that to cope with “disguised” kidney donation, the hospital asks for written confirmation of kidney donation by the local government where the would-be donor and intended recipient live if they are not relatives. Hospital 115 has carried out 33 kidney transplant operations so far.



“This provides legal protection for the surgeons in case accidents happen to the kidney donors,” Dung explains.



Dr. Tran Ngoc Sinh of Cho Ray hospital says that it is very difficult for someone to donate their kidney to a stranger. “We only perform kidney transplant operations after carefully verifying that the donations are completely voluntary,” he adds.



According to Sinh, his hospital has performed over 180 kidney transplants. In only two cases were the donor and recipient not blood relatives. In one case, a husband donated his kidney to his wife and in the other case, a Buddhist nun donated her kidney to her disciple.



Nguyen Huy Quang, deputy director of the Ministry of Health’s Legal Department, confirmed that it is illegal to sell and purchase kidneys. Of over 300 kidney transplant operations have been carried out in Vietnam so far, Quang said, all kidney donors were relatives of the recipients."

Egypt pressured to end underground organ trade

CAIRO - The poverty of Cairo's slums forced a young couple to sell nearly everything they had. When that wasn't enough, each of them sold a kidney.
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The clandestine predawn operation in a small private hospital ended with the husband and wife being dumped semiconscious into taxis - the payment for their kidneys tucked into their clothes, they say.

A year later, penniless once more, they are too weak to even move around their apartment. They cannot afford follow-up care, and they spend much of the day in bed in a dark room.

"If anyone had made clear to me the danger, I wouldn't have done it," said Abdel-Rahman Abdel-Aziz, gaunt and looking older than his 24 years as he lay in bed beside his wife. He pulled up his sweat shirt to show the scar from the operation.

For years, word has spread among Egypt's destitute that selling a kidney - sometimes for as little as $2,000 - can be a quick way out of debt or to keep from sinking deeper into poverty. At rundown cafes, they are hunted by middlemen working for labs that match donors and recipients, many of whom are foreigners drawn to Egypt's thriving, underground organ trade.

Egypt is one of a half-dozen countries identified by the World Health Organization as organ-trafficking hot spots. Under international pressure, other trouble spots such as China, Pakistan, and the Philippines have outlawed organ sales and barred foreigners from undergoing transplants.

Egypt, however, has long ignored the problem, experts say. Transplant surgeons working to stop the global trade fear that foreign patients finding it harder to go to Asia could flood into Egypt in search of organs.

Egyptian officials are finally showing signs of action. One key problem has been that Egypt does not have a law regulating transplants, only weak doctors' union rules that bar sales but are largely self-policing and ignored.

Now, a draft law is expected to be put before parliament in the next few months. The law would ban the sale of organs, prohibit transplants to foreigners, restrict operations to public hospitals, and impose sentences of up to 15 years in prison and $180,000 fines for violations.

Egypt's Health Ministry has also begun cracking down. In recent months, authorities closed two private medical centers in Cairo and arrested doctors, middlemen, and lab workers for violating doctors' union rules or other charges, said Abdel-Rahman Shaheen, ministry spokesman.

"We must admit that we do have a problem with organ transplants," Shaheen said.

Crucially, the draft law also allows deceased donations, limiting the need for living donors. Past attempts at legislation have failed partly because of religious and cultural resistance to taking organs from the dead, though many other Muslim countries allow deceased donation.

There appears to be consensus on allowing deceased donations, but debate continues over whether the law should let doctors use brain death in determining whether a potential donor has died, as most other nations with transplant laws allow.

The brain death standard, rather than heart and lung failure, makes more organs available and is necessary for heart and full liver transplants.

Grand Sheik Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi of Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's pre-eminent institution, last week endorsed a brain death standard. But a powerful group of lawmakers opposes it, saying it opens the door to abuses.

Local kidney seller dies after two months

A 22-year-old man, who has been in a vegetative state for months after allegedly selling a kidney in China, passed away in his hometown in the south central province of Ninh Thuan Saturday.


In early May, To Cong Luan was transferred back to the province from Ho Chi Minh City-based Cho Ray Hospital as doctors couldn’t cure him.

His father, To Cong Son, said Luan’s health showed improvements in the last 20 days, but his conditions suddenly worsened on the last day.

He had even managed to eat a little soup instead of receiving food via tubes as before, said Son.

The father called on relevant authorities to speed up a probe into the alleged kidney sale racket in China which was the main reason for the young man’s death.

Last month, Son had petitioned the HCMC Police Department and the Prosecutors’ Office to investigate the case.

According to family and acquaintances, Luan, who was a college student in HCMC and also a hemophiliac, went to China late last year and had his left kidney removed.

He was transported back to HCMC in April by his girlfriend with many incisions on his belly.

Last month, the Medical Service Administration requested the city’s Health Department to confirm whether Luan’s case violated the law and investigate the existence of kidney trade rings in the city.

Earlier this year, police in the southern province of Soc Trang began investigating an alleged ring sending local people to China to sell kidneys, but no conclusions from the case have been made available.

Statistics by the Ministry of Health reveal Vietnam has 5,000-6,000 people suffering chronic kidney failure in the final stage who are in critical need of kidney transplant.

Source: Tuoi Tre

Reported by L. Truong