VietNamNet Bridge - Nguyen Thi Phuong, the 26-year-old woman in Ben Tre Province who looks like a 70-year old woman, can become young again, doctors said.

Doctor Vo Thi Bach Suong from the HCM City Medical University, told Thanh Nien daily that this is a rare case because Phuong got old not because of premature aging syndrome, but due side-effect of medicines, perhaps corticoid.

Doctor Hoang Van Minh, head of the Dematological Ward of the HCM City Medical University’s hospital performed a check-up for Phuong on October 4, and said that she has mastocytosis.

Mastocytosis is a disorder caused by the presence of too many mast cells which bring a number of symptoms like skin lesions, diarrhea, abdominal discomforts and other infections.

The doctor said that Phuong had cutaneous mastocytosis – the other being systemic – which caused fewer fatalities and could be cured. Her face could possibly recover with 50-70 percent.

He told Tuoi Tre daily that there was no need for plastic surgery since the disease could be cured with medicines and laser treatment would reduce the wrinkles. The first thing to do was to treat her allergy.

Minh remained concerned about other possible causes and said further tests, including a biopsy, needed to be done before he could give his final verdict.

Phuong is allergic with seafood. In 2008, after eating seafood, she suffered from serious allergy. Her husband, Nguyen Thanh Tuyen, 34, bought allergic medicines from a local pharmacy for Phuong. The young woman took the medicines for several days but they were ineffective. Tuyen took his wife to a local doctor, who said Phuong was diagnosed with dermatitis and wrote out a prescription for a week.
However, Phuong had hives on her face after taking the medicines. She stopped using the drug and saw an Oriental doctor in Giong Trom town.

After that, she saw many Oriental doctors and took different kinds of medicines to cure liver disease. Using Oriental medicines for six months without effectiveness, Phuong turned to Chinese traditional medicines. Herb doctors still insisted that Phuong contracted liver disease and gave her medicines for liver diseases. The woman took Chinese traditional medicines for two months. She has become an old lady since 2009.

This is not the only odd case in Vietnam. Local newspapers recently reported the case of Nguyen Thanh Hien, 17, who looks like a 80-year-old man and Do Quy Dan, 50, who looks like a boy. However, Hien is defined to suffer from the Hutchinson-Gilford syndrome or premature ageing. In the world, one out of each 4-8 million children suffers from this disease.

Man Chi