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Mysterious pig born disease strikes in Sichuan Province of China
A mysterious pig born disease has struck Sichuan province in western China. It has caused 34 deaths till July 30, 2005. The disease is named as swine streptococosis suis. In all 181 cases have been reported till July 31. The epidemic broke out in late June in cities and counties including Chengdu, Ziyang City, Jianyang City, Lezhi County and Zizhong County in Neijiang City . Two new cases were reported in Hong Kong and Guangzhou.
Chinese government has activated the emergency response system since the epidemic broke out in June and the situation is reported to be under control. The cause of the epidemic and the means of infection have been clarified and health and agricultural departments are taking joint actions to minimize the epidemic and secure people's health and lives .
Government has launched a campaign to publicize and educate the people to handle the situation and provide timely treatment to the affected people. Though the veterinarians are playing down the threat from disease, live stock trade has already been hit hard in Sichuan.
Two factories, one in Guangzhou and the other in Sichuan Province, are mass-producing the vaccines enough for 10 million pigs.
People are only likely to contract the disease from slaughtering or handling pigs that are sick or died from the infection.
The officials have dispelled concerns that the outbreak was avian influenza or SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). However, the approach this time in dealing with this new epidemic, in contrast to SARS is quite transparent.
No human-to-human infection has been found and the disease has a latency period of two to three days.
Those infected develop acute symptoms such as high fever, listlessness, vomiting and bleeding from vessels beneath the skin. About half of patients also go into severe shock, and the death rate of the disease is quite high, investigating experts said.
Central and local government officials are working on an epidemic analysis, identifying patients, destroying infected pigs, eradicating contagious channels and treating patients.
Farmers have been forbidden from slaughtering and processing infected pigs. Source: People’s Daily.
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