XML Feed for RxPG News   Add RxPG News Headlines to My Yahoo!   Javascript Syndication for RxPG News

Research Health World General
 
  Home
 
 Latest Research
 Cancer
 Psychiatry
 Genetics
 Surgery
 Aging
 Ophthalmology
 Gynaecology
 Neurosciences
 Pharmacology
 Cardiology
 Obstetrics
 Infectious Diseases
 Respiratory Medicine
 Pathology
 Endocrinology
 Immunology
 Nephrology
 Gastroenterology
 Biotechnology
 Radiology
 Dermatology
 Microbiology
 Haematology
 Dental
 ENT
 Environment
 Embryology
 Orthopedics
 Metabolism
 Anaethesia
 Paediatrics
 Public Health
 Urology
 Musculoskeletal
 Clinical Trials
 Physiology
 Biochemistry
 Cytology
 Traumatology
 Rheumatology
 
 Medical News
 Health
 Opinion
 Healthcare
 Professionals
 Launch
 Awards & Prizes
 
 Careers
 Medical
 Nursing
 Dental
 
 Special Topics
 Euthanasia
 Ethics
 Evolution
 Odd Medical News
 Feature
 
 World News
 Tsunami
 Epidemics
  Hemorrhagic Fevers
  Avian Influenza
  Cholera
  Poliomyelitis
 Climate
 Business
 
 India
Search

Last Updated: Nov 18, 2006 - 12:32:53 PM

Epidemics Channel
subscribe to Epidemics newsletter

World News : Epidemics

   DISCUSS   |   EMAIL   |   PRINT
Unusual Outbreak of Streptococcus suis with Symptoms of Toxic Shock Syndrome in China
Apr 12, 2006 - 1:19:00 PM, Reviewed by: Dr. Priya Saxena

�The emergence of any new zoonotic disease associated with high mortality is of global concern�

 
Streptococcus suis is a pathogen with serious economic effects on the pig industry worldwide. The disease is endemic in adult pigs in most countries where pig farming is common. Infections in adult pigs are usually asymptomatic, but infant piglets that get infected through contact with colonized adult females can develop fatal sepsis. Transmission to humans is rare and generally restricted to individuals with occupational exposure to live or dead pigs. The first human case of S. suis infection was reported in Denmark in 1968. Most of the approximately 200 previously reported human cases were characterized by meningitis and septicemia, and associated with a mortality of less than 10%.

Now George Gao and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and other Chinese institutions report details of a recent unusual outbreak in 2005 of S. suis that affected over 200 individuals in Sichuan province and killed 38 of them. Besides the large number of individuals infected and the high mortality rate, it was the clinical symptoms associated with this outbreak that attracted interest and worry from scientists and health officials worldwide when the outbreak was first reported in the news last year.

As Gao and colleagues now detail in their article, a large proportion of the individuals infected (including all but one of the patients who died) showed symptoms of streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSS). Up to now, most reported cases of STSS had been attributed to group A streptococci. However, as Gao and colleagues show, the etiologic agents in the recent outbreak, as well as in an earlier outbreak in Sichuan province in 1998 that killed 14 of 25 reported patients, were clearly of the serotype 2 strains of S. suis. Both human outbreaks were closely linked to outbreaks in the local pig populations, and the researchers report that there are no reasons to believe that any of the cases had been caused by human-to-human transmission. They also showed that S. suis isolated from the human patients caused typical S. suis disease in newborn piglets.

Were there other unusual characteristics among the Chinese isolates that could explain their ability to cause STSS? STSS is thought to be caused by bacterial superantigens that overstimulate the human immune system. Gao and colleagues tested the S. suis isolates associated with STSS for superantigen production, but were unable to detect any.

One of the key questions that arose when the recent outbreak was first reported was whether a new and more virulent strain of S. suis has emerged in China. Gao and colleagues performed an initial genomic survey of the isolates from the Chinese outbreaks to look for unusual characteristics that could explain the virulence of the pathogens. They did find some differences between the isolates from the 1998 and 2005 Chinese outbreaks (which appear very similar to each other) and other virulent strains, but a more detailed sequence analysis and functional studies will be needed before it is clear whether any of these differences have functional consequences for pathogenesis in pigs or humans.

In an accompanying Perspective article (10.1371/journal.pmed.0030187), Shiranee Sriskandan and Joshua Slater suggest that S. suis infection �should now be in the list of differential diagnoses when clinicians encounter patients with unexplained sepsis who have a history of exposure to pigs.� They conclude that �the emergence of any new zoonotic disease associated with high mortality is of global concern� and call for �international collaboration � to clarify differences between isolates circulating in different regions of the world.�
 

- (2006) Streptococcus suis Outbreak with Symptoms of Toxic Shock Syndrome in China. PLoS Med 3(5): e218
 

Read Research Article

 
Subscribe to Epidemics Newsletter
E-mail Address:

 

Streptococcus suis Outbreak with Symptoms of Toxic Shock Syndrome in China

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030218

Published: April 11, 2006

Copyright: � 2006 Public Library of Science. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License


Related Epidemics News

Tomatoes in Restaurants Linked to Salmonella Typhimurium Outbreak
Are Flu Vaccines Worth the Effort?
Lessons from SARS may help prepare for bird flu
Incomplete vaccination could worsen the spread of avian flu
Singapore facing unprecedented outbreak of Fusarium keratitis
Scientists aim to thwart use of flu as bioweapon
Pakistani poultry industry demands 10-year tax holiday
Pandemic prevention plan approved for Asia Pacific
H5N1 threat puts human flu back in spotlight
Bird flu hits ninth poultry farm in Pakistan


For any corrections of factual information, to contact the editors or to send any medical news or health news press releases, use feedback form

Top of Page

 

© Copyright 2004 onwards by RxPG Medical Solutions Private Limited
Contact Us