Health authorities in the central province of Quang Ngai Wednesday said 19 local people have died from an unidentified skin condition over the last 12 months.

This is 11 more than the figure reported earlier by authorities in Ba To District, the disease’s epicenter.

Le Han Phong, chairman of Ba To People’s Committee, said the earlier figure did not take into account the victims who had died at home.

“We know about the deaths, but because we were yet to identify their causes, we did not report them for fear of scaring local people,” said Dang Thi Phuong, director of Ba To’s health center.

It was found later that the unaccounted victims suffered the same symptoms as those who succumbed to the disease in hospitals, Phong said.

Most of the cases came from Ba Dien Commune, where eight people died, the department said, adding that other cases were recorded in four other communes, and one commune in Minh Long District.

At the moment, 49 people are receiving treatment at the Quy Hoa National Leprosy Dermatology Hospital in the adjacent province of Binh Dinh, and the Ba To health center, it said.

Ten of them are in critical condition. In fact, the skin condition, which is suspected to be caused by the use of plant protection chemicals, can lead to liver and lung failure in critical cases.

“The development of the disease at Ba Dien commune is really complicated and critical; the numbers of new cases and recurrence cases are increasing dramatically,” Phong said. “Local people’s lives are being threatened hour by hour.”

According to Phong, Ba To’s authorities have sent letters to Vietnam-Russia Tropical Centre, along with the Ministry of Defense’s health military and chemistry departments, asking them to step in to study the disease’s causes.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Xuan Men, vice director of Quang Ngai’s health department, said last October the Ministry of Health had assigned a delegation to Ba To to learn more about the disease, but nothing was found then.

Last week the ministry sent another delegation to take samples of water, food, and tissue from patients for further studies in cooperation with international experts, Men said.