A nine-year-old girl in the central highlands province of Dak Lak has been infected with Whitmore's disease.
A nine-year-old girl in the central highlands province of Dak Lak has been infected with Whitmore's disease.
Director of Dak Lak Provincial Health Department, Nay Phi La, announced on Wednesday that the girl came from Ia Lop Commune, Ea Sup District.
According to the girl's mother, she started showing symptoms of high fever and enlarged parotid glands 10 days ago and the conditions had not improved after taking medicine prescribed by some local clinics.
The patient was taken to the Central Highlands Regional General Hospital on June 4 with a high fever of 39 degrees Celsius and enlarged parotid glands. There was pus in her jaw and she could not open her mouth normally.
She tested positive for Burkholderia Pseudomallei, the bacteria that causes Whitmore’s disease, which can infect both humans and animals.
Doctors have removed the abscess in her parotid glands, but she still suffers from constant high fever and diarrhoea.
Dak Lak Provincial Centre for Diseases Control has carried out contact tracing and measures to prevent the disease from spreading.
Whitmore's disease is an infectious and fatal disease caused by a bacterium called Burkholderia pseudomallei. The disease was first found in Vietnam in 1925.
The bacteria are found in contaminated water and soil and spread to humans and animals through direct contact with contaminated sources.
Whitmore's disease causes pneumonia, high fever, bloody sputum, and pus or blood in the lung tissue.
In 2020, 24 cases of Whitmore’s disease and four deaths were reported in the central province of Quang Tri following torrential rains which triggered serious flooding in the area.
