The head of the hospital's Department for Tropical Diseases, Pham Cong Duc, said that the four elderly patients were in severe conditions with many different life-threatening complications.
"Two of the patients, aged 62 and 67, were hospitalised with high fever and had swollen boils in their legs," the doctor said. "Doctors took samples from the boils for biopsy testing and found Burkhoderia Pseudomallei bacteria, which causes Whitmore's disease."
According to the doctor, Whitmore patients do not have specific clinical manifestations, making it difficult to detect infected cases.
"They were in serious conditions when arriving at the hospital and are receiving intensive treatment," he said, adding that patients may face death if having severe background diseases and late detection.
