These images show a 13-year-old girl with red scaly skin and open sores as a result of a rare skin condition that has only been recorded in 38 kids worldwide.
The girl, named only as N.T.N.D., from the Ben Tre Province in south-western Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, suffered from Mucha-Habermannb disease before medics were finally able to cure her.
Her condition began with red scaly skin and open sores which later developed into painful ulcers on her face, scalp, body, arms, legs, palms, and feet, and even on her lips, nose, and genitals.
After her skin first erupted, the teenager’s parents took her to a series of doctors and hospitals but none was able to treat her or even determine what was wrong with her.
N.T.N.D. also suffered from symptoms including burning pains, a high fever, fatigue, joint pain, abdominal pain, a dry cough, and an enlarged liver.
She was eventually admitted to Children’s Hospital 1 in Ho Chi Minh City and later transferred to the city’s Hospital of Dermato-Venereology where she was diagnosed with Mucha-Habermannb disease.
Dr Hoang Van Minh said the disease, also known as PLEVA, was a severe skin disorder so rare it had only ever been recorded in 72 patients, 38 of them children, worldwide.
There is no known cause of the acute condition which generally affects young adults and children, more normally boys.
N.T.N.D. was initially treated with antibiotics and corticosteroids but she did not respond. Doctors eventually decided to give her methotrexate, which supresses the immune system and is often used in treating several types of cancer.
And after two months of treatment, her skin had cleared up and doctors were able to pronounce her cured.
Dr Minh added that N.T.N.D. was Vietnam’s first ever sufferer of the disease. He reported details of the case to a dermatology conference in Ho Chi Minh City.
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Story By: Simon Glover, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder,  Agency: Asia Wire Report
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