Health officials said yesterday that they have yet
to find specific treatments for people infected with a disease that
has killed 24 farmers in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
At the moment doctors are relying on heavy doses of
antibiotics to treat patients, but with the death toll mounting the
pressure is on to find a better therapy.
"The Center for Disease Control and Prevention is
conducting drug sensitivity tests to find a more effective
treatment," said Ministry of Health spokesperson Mao Qun'an, and
daily reports on the situation have been made to the WHO.
The ministry said the outbreak was caused by
Streptococcus suis, a bacteria carried by pigs, and the
first patient was hospitalized on June 24 in Ziyang No.3 People’s
Hospital.
The number of human cases has risen to 117 in two
neighboring cities, Ziyang and Neijiang. Of these, 76 infections
are confirmed and 41 suspected, with 21 in a critical
condition.
Chen Huanchun, vice president of Hubei
Province’s Huazhong Agricultural University, said pig-to-human
infection can be prevented if people refrain from slaughtering,
processing or eating infected pigs.
Chen, also a member of the expert group set up by
the Ministry of Agriculture to conduct on-the-spot investigations,
said the bacteria can only infect people through open wounds or if
they digest infected meat.
Pork prices have dropped 20 percent in Ziyang, said
Cao Jingli, a government employee there.
Chen said the Guangzhou Veterinary Medicine Plant
is working on a vaccine to protect pigs from the disease, expected
to take about a week, and it will be used after a two-to-three-day
safety test.
The infected farmers and pigs are scattered
throughout 73 villages around Ziyang and Neijiang. So far no cases
have been reported elsewhere.
Expert investigators said poor sanitary conditions
had been found on the 300-plus farms where the pigs were raised,
and the provincial government said no infected pigs have been found
on large- or medium-sized breeding farms.
Experts said they are searching for the reason for
the outbreak since many healthy pigs ordinarily carry the bacteria
but do not fall ill or transmit the disease.
In the two affected cities, all 469 pigs with the
disease have been buried and 50 temporary checkpoints set up to
stop pigs from being transported from infected villages.
Wang Jian, a 41-year-old farmer in Panshi Village
in Danshan Town of Ziyang, is worried that his four pigs will not
survive the epidemic.
"If they die, it would mean a loss of 2,400 yuan
(US$296), one-quarter of my family's annual income," he said.
More than 50 pigs in his village have died from the
disease.
(China Daily July 27, 2005)