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Human Streptococcus suis Outbreak, Sichuan, China

May 23, 2006 — Hongjie Yu, Huaiqi Jing, Zhihai Chen, Han Zheng, Xiaoping Zhu, Hua Wang, Shiwen Wang, Lunguang Liu, Rongqiang Zu, Longze Luo, Nijuan Xiang, Honglu Liu, Xuecheng Liu, Yuelong Shu, Shui Shan Lee, Shuk Kwan Chuang, Yu Wang, Jianguo Xu, Weizhong Yang, an

From mid-July to the end of August 2005, a total of 215 cases of human Streptococcus suis infections, 66 of which were laboratory confirmed, were reported in Sichuan, China. All infections occurred in backyard farmers who were directly exposed to infection during the slaughtering process of pigs that had died of unknown causes or been killed for food because they were ill. Sixty-one (28%) of the farmers had streptococcal toxic shock syndrome; 38 (62%) of them died. The other illnesses reported were sepsis (24%) and meningitis (48%) or both. All isolates tested positive for genes for tuf, species-specific 16S rRNA, cps2J, mrp, ef, and sly. A single strain of S. suis caused the outbreak, as shown by the identification of a single ribotype. The high death ratio was of concern; prohibiting backyard slaughtering ended the outbreak.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no06/05-1194.htm

Hongjie Yu, Huaiqi Jing, Lunguang Liu, Longze Luo, Honglu Liu, Shui Shan Lee, Jianguo Xu, the Streptococcus suis study groups: Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China; Zhihai Chen, Xiaoping Zhu, Weizhong Yang: State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control (ICDC), Beijing, China; Han Zheng: Beijing Ditan Hospital, Beijing, People's Republic of China; Hua Wang, Rongqiang Zu, Nijuan Xiang, Xuecheng Liu,Yuelong Shu: Sichuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Sichuan, People's Republic of China; Shiwen Wang: Jiangsu Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Nanjing, People's Republic of China; Shuk Kwan Chuang: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China; Yu Wang: Centre for Health Protection, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China