Vietnam spends over US$128,000 treating British pilot whose lungs failed after contracting coronavirus

Saving the life of a British pilot who became Vietnam's most critically ill coronavirus patient has cost the country more than 3 billion dong (US$128,000) so far, but he has been pronounced clear of Covid-19 and authorities are considering repatriating him when he is strong enough to travel.

Patient 91, who tested positive for coronavirus in mid-March, spent 47 days on life support and last week only had 10 per cent of his lung capacity.

The 43-year-old Vietnam Airlines pilot now has a lung capacity of 30 per cent and has tested negative in six consecutive coronavirus tests.

However, the health ministry last week said the man would not survive without a lung transplant, and given he needed two, the donation could only come from a brain-dead patient.

This effectively ruled out some 50 people who had volunteered to donate part of their lungs to the patient.

The British man's immune system had overreacted after being attacked by the virus, which led to him suffering a bleeding disorder and cytokine storm syndrome, a condition when too many cytokines, or small proteins, are released, damaging the organs.

According to a recent paper published by Chinese researchers in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, mild or severe cytokine storms were observed in many patients who had severe Covid-19, eventually leading to their deaths.

Vietnam has among the fewest coronavirus cases in Southeast Asia. Photo: AFP

Vietnam's health ministry said Patient 91's body had been resistant to local coagulant drugs to stop bleeding and clotting, prompting it to import drugs for his treatment.

Doctors were on Thursday gradually reducing Patient 91's reliance on the life support machine, which pumps and oxygenates the patient's blood outside his body, the health ministry said. This would allow his lungs to function more in the oxygenation process, it said. The ministry said repatriation would be considered once his health has improved and he is strong enough to make the journey, according to local media reports.

The British embassy said it had been working with Vietnamese doctors to assist in the patient's treatment and support his family.

"Staff from our consulate in Ho Chi Minh City are in regular contact with the hospital," a spokesperson for the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office said.

On Friday, Patient 91 was transferred from Ho Chi Minh City Hospital For Tropical Diseases, where he was treated for more than two months, to Cho Ray Hospital to continue his treatment.

A man has his temperature checked at a supermarket entrance in Ho Chi Minh on April 4, 2020. Photo: Reuters

Vietnam has not recorded any coronavirus deaths. Since April 15, it has detected no community transmission.

The latest four imported cases announced on May 18, including two flight attendants and two repatriated citizens, brought the nation's tally of infections to 324. Of them, 57 are active while 267 have recovered.

While cases remain low, more imported infections are expected as Vietnamese nationals return from overseas.

Since mid-April, 13 flights have been launched to repatriate Vietnamese citizens from Canada, France, Japan, Russia, Singapore, Spain and the United States.

Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said it was working with overseas authorities to arrange 18 flights to bring more home citizens until June 15. Passengers must bear the costs of the airfares themselves and all entrants must commit to a 14-day quarantine.

At a government meeting on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam warned the country not to become complacent, saying Vietnam had controlled the epidemic well, but it was yet to win the Covid-19 fight.

Dam has been tasked with running the Ministry of Health, which has been leaderless since the last Minister resigned last November.

As of Friday, there were nearly 15,000 people serving a quarantine in centralised quarantine camps, homes and hospitals, according to the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control.

With the effective control of two coronavirus waves, students this month returned to school and businesses have reopened.

The World Bank said in a report this week that Vietnam's free-trade agreement with the European Union would help the country deal with its post-pandemic recovery.

The EVFTA, which is expected to be ratified by Vietnam's National Assembly this month, could boost Vietnam's GDP and exports by 2.4 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively, and bring between 100,000 to 800,000 people out of poverty by 2030, the report said.

But people with little means could be disproportionately hit by the economic fallout. The country introduced a 62 trillion dong (US$2.6 billion) financial support package last month to support citizens and businesses affected by the pandemic, including those who had been laid off, part-time workers, poor and near-poor households, and household businesses with revenues of below 100 million dong a year.

Phung Duc Tung, a specialist in development and poverty reduction and director of Vietnam's Mekong Development Research Institute, said: "The package has aimed at the right targets, but the implementation has been too slow."

The researcher also said due to some localities merging poor households together on official records to increase their achievement rates in poverty reduction, some families might not be eligible to benefit from the package.

Tung also said informal workers were particularly at risk of falling through the cracks in terms of state support.

"When it comes to Vietnamese informal workers without social protection or working contracts, there is no system monitoring them or an official body to identify whether they are a beneficiary or not," Tung said, adding that some might be left out by the package distribution.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.