Panicing, he went online and searched information about the strange phenomenon. At that time, in 2017, information about the disease was insufficient. He visited medical websites, but could not find reasons behind the disease.

The man, who was then 24 years old, went to the Central Dermatology Hospital and met Prof Dr Tran Hau Khang, the director of the hospital.

“The patient came to see me with a white shirt with red pants, a pair of slippers and a wet wipe. All of them were slightly red,” Khang recalled.

When talking with the patient, Khang found that the patient began suffering from this phenomenon after experiencing a huge economic shock that caused him to mentally collapse. 

Khang then thought of a rare phenomenon - Hematohidrosis – which is a very rare condition in which an individual sweats blood. At that time, the world had recognized 200 similar cases but none in Vietnam.

"First, I had a sample under my skin taken. The doctor also asked me to run and sweat, take the sweat sample for testing," A recalled. Two specific tests (Benzidine and Hemochromogen reactions) allowed doctors to detect red blood cells in sweat glands. They did a skin biopsy to determine the circulation between sweat glands and capillaries.

Prof Khang said it took him one week to give an exact diagnosis, and he found the mechanism that causes the disease. This was from a severe stress spell causing local vasomotor disorders, damaging capillaries, skin and sweat glands.

After that, drugs were prescribed and A was requested to ease his stress. The solutions then helped him recover from illness. The disease recurred in early 2018, but at a slight level. Since then, the phenomenon which caused him to panic has not returned.

After Khang reported the first sweat blood case in Vietnam in 2018, the hospital later found another patient, a 7-year-old girl from Hung Yen. The girl’s case was more serious with blood mixed with sweat on some skin areas of her body, especially on her hands.

In 2018, the Quy Hoa Central Leprosy Dermatology Hospital treated a girl, Q.N, from Gia Lai province, who was 11 years old. Her relatives discovered a strange phenomenon on the girl’s body when she was busy reviewing lessons for the academic year-end tests. 

The sweat secreted through the skin in the eyes, face, and hands was red, and there were 3-4 spells of red sweat a day. The girl said when this happened, she felt fatigued and had a headache, and felt as if the skin on her face had stretched.

Vo Thu