Two new cases of pig-borne disease caused by the bacterium Streptococcus suis were confirmed in southern China yesterday, one in Guangdong Province and one in Hong Kong, the day after the health and agriculture ministries said the outbreak in the southwestern province of Sichuan was under control.
The most recent case in Guangdong was diagnosed in Shenzhen City on Saturday and confirmed at a provincial teleconference on the disease's prevention and control yesterday. It is the fourth known infection in the province since at least the start of the Sichuan epidemic, which killed 38 between the end of June and August 4.
It involved a man who reportedly cut his hand whilst butchering pork and chicken, and he is currently receiving treatment in hospital.
Another person was infected in Nanxiong, but there were no further details reported apart from the fact that he or she was still in hospital.
Of the two earlier cases, one abattoir worker hospitalized in Chao'an County, Chaozhou City on July 27 recovered and was discharged two days later, but a man in his 40s diagnosed in Jiangcheng County, Yanjiang City on August 5 later died.
He had slaughtered and butchered two pigs, and as of reports on August 9 the meat from them that his wife sold in the market had not been traced.
Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) said a 79-year-old woman now in a critical condition there was also confirmed as infected yesterday, bringing the special administrative region's total for this year to ten.
The Kowloon City resident developed a fever, pain in her right knee, redness and swelling on August 16 and was admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital six days later. She has not traveled recently, and her home contacts have been put under medical observation.
The last case in Hong Kong was of a supermarket butcher hospitalized on August 12. His employers removed pork from its shelves, but on August 16 the CHP said infected meat may have already been sold and that other infections could not be ruled out.
Medical teams have been sent to affected areas of Guangdong, where no cases of infection among pigs have been reported, to investigate and help local protective measures. The provincial government also mobilized departments of health and agriculture to take emergency action to prevent the disease from spreading.
Hong Kong health officials advised local residents to observe personal and environmental hygiene and avoid contact with pigs.
(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2005)
