Hong Kong woman contracts pig disease

HONG KONG (Reuters) – A 78-year-old woman in Hong Kong has
contracted a pig-borne disease that has killed 39 people in
southwest China in recent weeks.

The case is the third in Hong Kong since an outbreak of the
disease, caused by the Streptococcus suis bacteria, began in
China’s Sichuan province around June. None of the three people
had traveled recently outside Hong Kong.

A government spokesman said the woman was in stable
condition in hospital. She developed fever and pain in her left
hip on August 3 and was admitted to hospital on August 8.

“She said she did not consume any raw pork. We are
investigating how she contracted the bacteria, if she has
recently visited a wet market or if she was exposed to raw pork
(during cooking),” the government spokesman said on Thursday.

More than 200 people have contracted the disease in Sichuan
from slaughtering, handling or eating infected pigs. The
outbreak has killed around 650 pigs in the province, but
instead of disposing them, many poor farmers ate and even sold
them.

The outbreak in China’s top pork-producing province was
first reported in June but did not surface in the Chinese media
until almost a month later.

Streptococcus suis is endemic in most pig-rearing countries
but human infections are rare.

Although China’s state media have said no human-to-human
infections have been found in Sichuan, the infection rate and
death toll is considered unusually high.