Streptococcal infection after eating pork offal

On August 3, a representative of the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases said the patient was admitted in a state of lethargy, low blood pressure, and purple skin lesions all over his body. In addition to the above symptoms, the patient also vomited a lot and had a dull headache.

The woman said she ate pig intestines 4 days ago, did not consume blood pudding, and on the second day, purple-black patches appeared on her face.

The doctor diagnosed septic shock, sepsis with meningitis, prescribed oxygen therapy, and continuous blood filtration. Blood and cerebrospinal fluid cultures revealed Streptococcus suis infection (bacteria that cause streptococcal disease in pigs).

According to the Department of Preventive Medicine (Ministry of Health), Streptococcus suis is a disease transmitted from animals to humans, there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission. Most cases are related to slaughtering, eating raw blood pudding or undercooked dishes. Some cases do not eat blood pudding or slaughter pigs but still get sick. The cause is eating raw infected pork, or coming into contact with sick pigs through skin lesions and scratches during processing.

Streptococcus suis bacteria are completely destroyed when food is thoroughly cooked. Therefore, to prevent the disease, people should not slaughter sick or dead pigs, and should not handle raw meat without protective gloves, especially when there are wounds.

People infected with streptococcus suis may develop sepsis, purulent meningitis, or a combination of both. Depending on the type, the disease can progress to mild or severe, with some cases being severely infected from the start.

The incubation period can be from a few hours to 4-5 days, depending on each person's constitution. Symptoms include fever, chills, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but not frequent, which can easily be mistaken for common digestive disorders or food poisoning.

Patients also have symptoms of headache, tinnitus, deafness, stiff neck, lethargy, and necrotic rashes on the skin due to sepsis and purulent meningitis.

The disease is treated with antibiotics, long-term, combined with blood filtration, respiratory and circulatory support. Patients with purulent meningitis may need to be treated for at least three weeks, and patients with sepsis may need to be treated for up to two months, costing hundreds of millions of dong.

Doctors warn that patients can die if treatment is delayed. The mortality rate from streptococcal infection is about 7%. If the patient survives, the rate of sequelae is also very high, about 40%.

According to VnExpress