HCMC – After undergoing treatment for over one week at the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases, a 13-year-old patient, identified as G.A.P., died of diphtheria on July 3, the second death related to the disease that has severely hit Dak Nong Province.
Doctor Phan Tu Qui, head of the pediatric intensive care unit at the hospital, told Tuoi Tre Online on July 3 that the resident of Dak Nong Province had suffered damage to the heart muscle and heart failure.
The patient was conscious a day before the death, but G.A.P.’s heartbeats did not function properly and the kidneys were damaged, leading to the mortality rate reaching up to 80%.
Before being taken to the HCMC-based hospital on June 26, the patient had been presenting symptoms of cough, fever and a sore throat at the Central Highlands Regional General Hospital for four days.
Previously, on June 20, a nine-year-old girl reportedly died of diphtheria two hours after being admitted to the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases by the Dak Nong General Hospital.
