Acute hepatitis after 3 days of taking ‘heirloom’ medicine to cure mouth ulcers

Vietnam – Sweden Hospital Uong Bi (Quang Ninh) has just received a male patient with HNT (67 years old, residing in Dong Trieu district, Quang Ninh) who was admitted to the emergency room due to acute hepatitis after using herbal medicine.

Mr. T. said, about 1 week ago, the patient had a burning pain in the tongue, mouth ulcers. This man did not go to the doctor but listened to some people’s tips and used the traditional medicine of a healer near the prescriber’s house.

Mr. T. described the lozenge as a round black pill, it is not clear what it is made of. After about 3 days of taking the medicine, he started to develop a rash all over his body with fever. At this time, Mr. T. had just visited the Medical Center of Dong Trieu town, then was transferred to the Vietnam – Sweden hospital Uong Bi with a diagnosis of acute hepatitis.

According to a gastroenterologist, the Vietnam – Sweden Hospital Uong Bi has received many cases of patients using drugs such as herbal medicines and functional foods of unknown origin. The patient was admitted to the hospital with liver failure, kidney failure, blood clotting disorder…

In the case of Mr. T., this person was admitted to the hospital with a very elevated liver enzyme index 30-50 times higher than that of a normal person. If not treated promptly, the patient can face complications such as acute liver failure, severe blood clotting disorder, even life-threatening.

After 4 days of treatment with drugs to support liver cells, intravenous fluids to increase liver detoxification, the patient’s health is stable, the liver enzyme index has decreased a lot, is being continued to be monitored and treated.

Doctors advise people not to arbitrarily use male drugs of unknown origin, which have not been scientifically verified. When you arbitrarily use drugs at the wrong dose, right cause, not according to the doctor’s prescription, it will not have a curative effect but also poison yourself.

Previously, in April 2022, Hanoi Medical University Hospital also received a patient diagnosed with suspected phenformin poisoning after taking male drugs to treat diabetes. The 75-year-old woman has a 15-year history of diabetes and takes medication regularly as prescribed by her doctor.

However, recently, patients have given up treatment, do not maintain prescriptions according to the doctor’s instructions, but use herbal medicines from online herbalists.

Because of believing in the advertisements that male medicine can treat diabetes at the root, and reduce liver and kidney damage, the patient has spent a large amount of money to buy medicine.

After 1 month of using the above male medicine, the old woman showed signs of fatigue and weight loss, so her family took her to the emergency room at the hospital.

During the examination, the doctor suspected that the grandmother was poisoned with phenformin – an old diabetes drug that was banned 30 years ago. After testing, the male pill the patient used contained phenformin.

Ngoc Trang