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Four cases of pig-borne disease reported
(AP)
Updated: 2005-08-23 07:09
BEIJING - Four people have been infected by a pig-borne disease in China's south and one has died, the government said Monday, one day after an epidemic in another part of the country was declared under control, AP reported.
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| A pig on a farm in South Africa. South African authorities began culling the first of more than 20,000 pigs in the country's southeast after veterinary officials confirmed the outbreak of swine fever. [AFP] |
The infections were reported in four different areas in Guangdong province, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing information released by the provincial government.
No pigs were reported sickened by Streptococcus suis, the bacteria blamed for the human cases, Xinhua said. It wasn't immediately clear how the people were infected, but the disease is usually passed on through contact with raw pork or sick swine. The report did not say if person-to-person transmissions were involved.
Two of the cases were still hospitalized, Xinhua said, without giving more details.
On Sunday, China's ministries of health and agriculture said that an outbreak of the disease in Sichuan province, hundreds of kilometers (miles) northwest of Guangdong, had been brought under control.
At least 38 people died in the epidemic, which was first detected in June, mostly farmers who butchered or handled infected pigs. More than 200 people were sickened.
Symptoms include high fever, nausea and vomiting, followed by meningitis, hemorrhaging under the skin, toxic shock and sometimes coma. Some patients have also suffered organ failure.
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