Fasciola caused by eating crabs

There have been 3 deaths and more than 400 people have coughed up blood due to eating stone crabs in Luc Yen, Yen Bai. The big stone crabs and sweet meat - the favorite dish of the Dao people here - carry in themselves the lung fluke larvae.

Located right next to the main road, a few hundred meters from the headquarters of Khanh Hoa commune, but the shabby house of Mr. Truong Van Kim used to be called a " ghost house " by the villagers. Everything began when Truong Thi Phet - his daughter - suddenly coughed and coughed all day, sputum is thick, cloudy. Mr. Kim took me to the clinic to take medicine to treat cough like every time but the illness did not stop.

A boy almost died from the lung fluke.(Photo: CAND)

Loving the child, he took Phất to the district hospital, went to the provincial hospital to take all the rice and a buffalo but didn't lose anything. Hospital returned. Before his death, Phất coughed up a bowl of blood, lying in one place. My son passed away, Mr. Kim was not shocked yet. His wife, Mr. Hunt, started coughing.

Opposite Mr. Kim's house, a village road, 7-year-old Truong Thi Théo coughed all day. Seeing that Mr. Kim took his child to the hospital but could not cure it, Théo's parents turned to invite the monk to worship the ghost. Mass, offerings for ghosts throughout the week but eventually " ghost " still catch Theo.

Next, the 5-year-old Tong, the son of Mr. Ban at the end of the village, also fell ill and died. The three children in the village died in a puzzling way, making the people in the village very confused. The panic goes up even more when dozens of people in the village rush to cough, but run down the central hospital and still do not escape. So, many families, whether or not there are sick people, will worship the ghost.

Crab stone - the main culprit

Not only are people confused, but health workers in Luc Yen district, Yen Bai province also fall into the disorder. Mr. Luong Ba Phu, Director of the Center for Prevention of Malaria, Parasites and Insects, said: Experts in the district and province argue very hard. People diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis, a person who has bronchitis, and some even suggest considering the possibility of lung cancer.

The mysterious curtain of this strange disease began to reveal when a patient coughed up blood, which was cured by the Central Institute of Malaria, Parasites and Insects after only 3 days. The main cause is lung fluke, a disease that is not new but has been ignored. Yen Bai immediately implemented an epidemiological investigation project on this disease.

After a few days of eating, staying together, studying with the people, Dr. Luong Ba Phu knew that the people here had a habit of eating grilled stone crabs; Especially the children often catch crabs to grilled over tangerine and eat well when going to the buffalo.

Test results: More than 90% of the crab samples have lung fluke larvae, 100% of people have a history of eating grilled crabs infected with lung fluke. The number of people infected with lung fluke from found crabs has reached 400 people.

Mr. Ha Xuan Ung, head of Khanh Hoa commune health station, said: Although the cause of the disease is as clear as day, persuading people to stop eating stone crabs is not easy. Many older Dao people are illiterate and have not even heard Kinh language, so propaganda is very difficult. "