2 million Vietnamese people suffer from a disease that causes skin peeling all over the body.

(Dan Tri) - Associate Professor, Dr. Le Huu Doanh, Director of the Central Dermatology Hospital, said that about 2 million Vietnamese people suffer from psoriasis. The disease often recurs, lasts for a long time, and seriously affects the quality of life.

Proposal to increase health insurance payments for psoriasis

On October 24, at the Scientific Conference - Meeting of the psoriasis clinic system 2024-2025 held in Lao Cai, Associate Professor, Dr. Le Huu Doanh, Director of the Central Dermatology Hospital, Head of the Dermatology Department (Hanoi Medical University), said that psoriasis is a chronic disease that requires lifelong treatment.

Therefore, developing specialized psoriasis clinics helps patients to be managed and treated right at the grassroots level, improving their quality of life.

According to Associate Professor Doanh, with the support of the Central Dermatology Hospital, there is now a system of 26 specialized clinics in the provinces and cities. Thanks to this, many patients no longer have to travel hundreds of kilometers each time for a check-up.

Associate Professor Doanh said that specialized clinics are doing a good job of managing and monitoring psoriasis patients locally, creating favorable conditions to help patients avoid having to travel far for medical examination (Photo: HH).

Besides expanding specialized clinics for the convenience of patients, the current treatment cost for psoriasis patients is still very high, because biological drugs are expensive and difficult for patients to access.

"Many biological drugs costing from 150 to 250 million VND/year are only covered by 50% of the Health Insurance Fund, making it difficult for patients to access. The hospital proposed increasing the payment level from 50% to 70% for some biological drugs and adding new biological drugs to the Health Insurance list," Associate Professor Doanh said.

Increasing the health insurance payment rate will help patients with moderate and severe psoriasis to receive effective treatment, return to normal life soon, and reduce the economic burden on patients and society.

Beware of the "domino effect" of psoriasis

Associate Professor Doanh said that skin lesions of psoriasis patients can be scattered or spread throughout the body.

The disease can appear at any time in life. There are many factors that trigger the disease, especially related to stress, stress, patients with throat and urinary tract infections...

Image of skin lesions and peeling of psoriasis patient (Photo: HH).

However, up to 50% of patients with psoriasis feel confused, depressed, and pessimistic.

It is worth noting that psoriasis is not only a skin disease but also a chronic immune-mediated inflammation. If not treated properly, the disease can cause a "domino effect" leading to metabolic disorders, atherosclerosis, diabetes, hypertension, and even mental disorders.

The most miserable thing for psoriasis patients is the feeling of shame because of the damage on the body, which easily makes the patient withdraw and depressed. Worried, many people believe in folk remedies and advertisements that "cure" psoriasis, so they stop following treatment, easily having a very severe flare-up, the disease from mild to severe, even encountering dangerous complications.

According to Dr. Le Thi Mai, Head of the Line Guidance Department - Training & Line Guidance Center (Central Dermatology Hospital), the network of psoriasis specialized clinics has been deployed at many medical facilities across the country.

Mr. NNT (Au Lau ward, Lao Cai province) said he had psoriasis for more than 10 years. He regularly went for check-ups at the Central Dermatology Hospital, a distance of 150km.

Therefore, every time he went to the doctor, he was afraid of the long distance, the expensive travel, and felt self-conscious. "Whenever I was on a crowded bus, I just wished that psoriasis patients like me could be treated near home, less difficult and expensive..." Mr. T. shared.

Since Lao Cai General Hospital No. 1 opened a specialized dermatology clinic, Mr. T. has been treated locally.

Under the guidance of doctors, he was treated with phototherapy combined with biological drugs like at the central level. "The treatment was convenient, I could go home the same day, and my comfortable mentality helped my illness improve significantly, my skin was less itchy and flaky, and my health gradually stabilized," Mr. T. shared.

With 26 psoriasis clinics, thousands of patients access specialized services locally, improving professional capacity and standardizing treatment regimens for lower-level facilities.

This model helps manage patients more effectively, ensures proper monitoring and treatment, patients have access to appropriate systemic and biological drugs, while reducing costs, travel time and improving quality of life.

Furthermore, when the specialized clinic system operates synchronously, it will create a large data source for scientific research, training and standardization of treatment procedures. The hospital is conducting more than 60 research topics on psoriasis, many of which have been directly applied in clinical treatment.

In the coming time, the hospital will maintain online consultations, regular scientific activities and support specialized testing, to improve the quality of treatment, reduce the burden of disease and improve the lives of patients.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/suc-khoe/2-trieu-nguoi-viet-mac-can-benh-bong-troc-da-toan-than-20251024205225991.htm