Vietnam seeks foreign help to beat mystery skin disease (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

Vietnam says it will ask for international help to find out what is causing a skin infection that has already killed 19 people.

More than 170 people in the country's central province of Quang Ngai have reported symptoms.

The disease begins with a rash on the hands and feet: it can progress to liver problems and multiple organ failure.

Vietnamese health ministry tests have failed to pinpoint the cause.

Rituals and prayers

The mystery illness was first reported between April and December 2011 and then subsided, but broke out again last month.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17799053




Another emerging tropical disease -- can't wait to see how many more will pop up due to GW

[Warpy]

1. Well, a combination of GW and modernization

HIV was just a local disease and not worthy of much note until the roads and then the airplanes came. Once that happened, it got exported and the rest of the world got a look at just how diabolical a retrovirus could be: hiding for years while a person was able to infect others, hiding beyond the blood/brain barrier where drugs couldn't kill it, and killing by opening a door to other infections, keeping its own little viral hands clean.

The end of oil could be the end of exporting these emerging diseases from emerging economies. I don't know what else will. Until then, outfits like WHO are going to have to figure out just what they are and whether they can be prevented or treated.