Fish allergy causes Vietnamese woman to age decades

Nguyen Thi Phuong is 26 but an allergic reaction to seafood in 2008 aged her 50 years in a matter of days, leaving her with wrinkled skin over her face and body so severe that she wears a mask in public.

“Five years ago, I was rather pretty and not so ugly,” she said, while looking at a picture of her wedding day in 2006. “My skin has folds like an old woman who has given birth several times – even though I have never had a child.”

Doctors have argued her condition is lipodystrophy – an incurable syndrome that causes a layer of fat to disintegrate while the skin continues to grow.

They believe the medicine Mrs Nguyen took after her initial allergic reaction may have made the condition take hold.

Husband Tuyen, a 33-year-old carpenter whose £90-a-month wage could not cover hospital treatment, added: ‘I still love her very much.’