The Ministry of Health will invite experts of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to investigate the unidentified skin disease in Ba To district of Quang Ngai province in central Vietnam.

“We have decided to ask the Ministry of Health to ask assistance from the WHO and the US Disease Control Agency to research the bizarre skin disease. International experts are very interested in this disease and they are willing to help Vietnam,” says Mr. Nguyen Trong Khoa, vice chief of the Agency for Disease Examination and Treatment.

The Ministry of Health’s missions paid visits to Ba To district twice in last October and April 2012 to collect water and soil samples, as well as blood and hair of patients for testing, but until now they have not defined the cause of the strange skin disease.

According to the Quang Ngai Department of Health, 166 people have been infected with this disease, 8 of them died. However, Ba To district reports up to 19 dead patients.

At this moment, 39 patients are being treated at the Quy Hoa Leprosy Hospital in Binh Dinh province. Four of them are in critical conditions.

Experts from the Ministry of Health say that patients were poisoned because they suffered from skin wounds and viscera failure, particularly liver failure.

Local residents have got panic because of the strange disease.