China's Sichuan Hit By Most Toxic Form of Swine Bacteria, Say Experts
Posted on: Thursday, 4 August 2005, 06:00 CDT
Text of report by staff reporter entitled: "Sichuan hit by the most toxic form of bacteria, say experts" by Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post website on 4 August
Sichuan province has been hit by the most toxic of the 35 strains of swine Streptococcus suis bacteria, according to a Ministry of Health expert.
Chen Zhihai, head of the ministry's clinical expert team sent to the infected area, said the Sichuan outbreak was the largest the world had seen, with 38 people dead and 206 infected.
Dr Chen said type II of the bacteria had a high degree of toxicity and could contain as many as seven "toxic" genes.
He said the speed and seriousness of infection depended on the bacteria's level of toxicity as well as patients' resistance levels.
Dr Chen said the disease had shown a fast incubation period in many people infected in Sichuan, with one male patient developing symptoms only two hours after infection.
Many patients quickly developed kidney, liver, lung and heart failure and died before receiving treatment, according to Dr Chen.
He stressed the infection could be tackled with antibiotics.
"The failure to give the patients sufficient attention at the beginning [of the outbreak] has led to the high death rate," Dr Chen said.
"But since the expert team and medical staff have gained a better understanding of the disease, accompanied by more publicity, higher alertness on the part of patients as well as better clinical standards, the death rate has dropped significantly."
He admitted there was a lack of knowledge about Streptococcus suis infections because there had been few other cases recorded in the world.
The Sichuan outbreak has enabled his team to gain a greater understanding of the symptoms of the type II bacteria.
"We have basically moved Beijing's [intensive care unit] institute to Sichuan," he said.
Meanwhile, Sichuan University immunologist Liu Xiaobo described the outbreak as pigs' revenge on mankind.
"In pursuit of economic benefits, human beings have fully neglected pigs' subsistence conditions and their health, so it is quite possible that hogs - which develop diseases amid bad conditions - would in turn affect human beings," Dr Liu was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
Jia Youling, director-general of the Ministry of Agriculture's Veterinary Bureau, blamed factors such as high temperatures, humidity, unhygienic conditions in pig shelters and unsanitary behaviour for the outbreak.
Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific
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