The whole world currently only records a few dozen cases per year
Associate Professor, Dr. Do Trung Dung, Head of the Department of Parasitology, Vietnam Institute of Malaria - Parasitology - insects, said that emerging and re-emerging parasitic diseases are on the rise in our country. Notably, there are even rare diseases such as dragon worm infections.
From 2021 to present, our country has recorded 24 cases in 5 provinces and cities including Yen Bai, Phu Tho, Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa and Lao Cai. Notably, from the time of worm infection to symptoms is about 12 months, during which time the patient has no symptoms.
For example, a 48-year-old male patient in Hoa Binh City (Hoa Binh).
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) of Hoa Binh province, there are 2 people in the family, the patient and the wife. The patient himself is in good health, not going abroad, not going to work far away. During his daily activities, the patient had a habit of eating fish salad, raw vegetables, and his family had raised dogs for many years.
20 years ago, patients going to the forest often drank tap water in streams and streams. More than a year ago, the patient had symptoms of itching in the left knee, right thigh, back, scratches and rashes on the skin. The patient went to a clinic near his home and was diagnosed with allergic dermatitis, used topical medications to reduce the itching and scratches caused by scratches on the spleen.
The patient itched and cracked the scales in his left knee and found a white line. The patient pulled the worm out 10-15cm, but thought it was a tendon, so he took the scissors and threw them in the trash bag. And went to Hoa Binh General Hospital for examination and was then introduced to a testing unit. The results showed that the patient was infected with canine and cat disease.
After that, the patient was introduced to Dang Van Ngu Hospital for examination. Here, the patient was diagnosed with dragon worm infection. At this time, the patient had no new scratches, the old damaged area had become scarred, dark purple, and had a touch from the damaged area, and there were no signs of parasitic parasites around the skin. The patient was advised and instructed on how to remove worms from the body in the swollen area, and clean the lesion area where the worm was removed.
According to Associate Professor, Dr. Do Trung Dung, dragon worm infection was quite common in the world before, but is currently only common in African countries.
"The whole world currently only records a few dozen cases per year, commonly in African countries. In Vietnam, the disease has only appeared in recent years. This is one of the longest worms in the human body, from 70 to 120 cm" - Associate Professor Dung said.
For people infected with this worm, there is currently no early diagnosis method or treatment with medicine, but only waiting for the worm to crawle out. The first case discovered in our country was in Yen Bai. The type of dragon worm in Vietnam is similar to the dragon worm that patients in Africa are infected with, not completely similar.
The danger is that worms can enter other locations such as joint holes and spines and then die, becoming injured, causing stiffness and paralysis because worms enter the spine...
Parasite-related diseases are on the rise
Dr. Hoang Dinh Canh - Director of the Central Institute of Malaria - Parasitology - entests, Director of Dang Van Ngu Hospital - said that in recent years, diseases caused by parasites have increased.
For example, statistics in 2024 show that among the patients coming to Dang Van Ngu Hospital for examination, the most are those with dog-stabbing worm Larvae, with more than 19,500 examinations, an increase of more than 25%. Similarly, there were more than 2,200 examinations for dog rhinitis, an increase of more than 174%, for thornyhead worm disease with 156 examinations, an increase of 105%.
In the first 2 months of 2025, the hospital received 22 cases of pig-lyceous Larvae, 17 cases of large liver disease, 1 case of lung disease, 4 cases of eel worms, 1 case of small liver disease; 2 cases of malaria, 1 case of rat rat weed disease...
According to Dr. Canh, wherever the parasite stops, it causes disease, commonly in the skin, the Larvae stop at the boiling skin, causing itchy skin damage. Another common location is the liver, which can develop into a lump, the image on the ultrasound can suspect cancer.
"In fact, there was a patient who had surgery to remove the tumor and discovered it was a mass. The third place is in the brain, a year at Dang Van Ngu Hospital, doctors discovered up to 30 cases of cerebral palsy. These cases are often mistakenly diagnosed as brain tumors, mental disorders because the disease causes headaches, affecting learning...
The fourth location is in the eyes, the Larvae crawling into the bottom of the eye causing eye damage, and if not treated early can lead to blindness. The disease develops silently and quietly, so many people do not go to the clinic" - Dr. Hoang Dinh Canh said.
