The Nghe An Centre for Disease Control (CDC) announced on Monday afternoon that an 18-year-old woman in Ky Son District died on July 5 after nearly ten days contracting the disease.

According to the Nghe An CDC, the woman earlier developed symptoms including fever, cough, and sore throat. She had taken some medicine, but her condition had not improved. She went to Ky Son Health Care Centre for a check-up on July 1 and was diagnosed with diphtheria. The Ky Son Health Care Centre advised her to go to a higher-level hospital for better treatment, but her family refused, saying that they could not afford it. Her situation worsened on July 4, and her family agreed to send her to the Nghe An General Hospital, but she died the following day.

Two of the 119 people who have had close contact with the patient, who was a student at the Ky Son Vocational Training Centre, moved to the northern province of Bac Giang. One of them has tested positive for the virus and is being treated at the Hanoi-based Hospital for Tropical Diseases. The patient is an 18-year-old woman who stayed in the same room as the patient while she was in Nghe An.

Nghe An CDC has taken samples of all the quarantined people for testing and given them preventive medicine. They will be closely monitored for 14 days.

This is the first fatality reported in the province this year.