Originally published August 9 2005
Pig-borne disease in China stumps experts
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Disease experts are baffled by reports of a pig-borne bacteria outbreak that is being blamed for killing 37 Chinese farmers through internal bleeding.
Experts on a strep germ that's making people and pigs sick in China are baffled by reports of at least 37 farmers suddenly falling ill, bleeding internally and dying -- all previously unheard of with the disease.
While not uncommon in pigs, Streptococcus suis is seldom seen in people and never in dozens of cases all at once -- raising bigger questions about whether the germ has mixed with some other bacterium or virus.
``Something is different,'' Marcelo Gottschalk, one of the world's leading experts on the disease, said Wednesday.
``We are worried, and we wonder what's happening.''
Gottschalk works in the world's only reference laboratory for Streptococcus suis at the University of Montreal and said no one in China has contacted him for help since the outbreak was reported last month.
The infected farmers who handled or butchered sick pigs have experienced nausea, fever, vomiting and bleeding under the skin.
So few people have studied this disease that he's unsure how the Chinese have been able to identify it and what type of vaccine they plan to use, since immunizations typically are not effective.
Chinese state media have reported that enough vaccine for 350,000 pigs has already been sent to Sichuan province and that enough doses for 10 million swine will be shipped later.
Gottschalk said Streptococcus suis usually takes a while to develop in people and often causes meningitis followed by partial or permanent hearing loss.
Most people also survive after being treated with antibiotics and cases typically are rare -- Thailand, for example, usually has fewer than 20 known cases a year, he said.
China has reported more than 200 confirmed or suspected human cases since June.
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