Hmmm... Not to argue, but my understanding is that Strep Suis is "quite common" in pigs (according to Novartis anyway), and that septicemia and meningitis in humans only rarely results from exposure to Strep Suis in pigs.
Prior to the current Chinese outbreak, supposedly only 150 cases had been reported in the entire world literature. Hence my "Never been even remotely this dangerous" comment.
(I haven't had time to personally confirm the low number of cases statistic, but I have checked the Novartis info.)
To: datura; All
I'm getting off the flu threads. There are some things going on in my life that require attention, and I'll be very busy very soon.
All is well with me, but some major changes are imminent. I need to be there for all of them, fully engaged. I apologize if this catches you or anyone up short, or causes any problem. If I had a choice, I'd postpone the changes, but I do not. I don't want to discuss them.
Thanks for working with me, everyone. I appreciate everything we've done together, dear FRiends. Please forgive me for the abrupt departure. God bless and keep you all, and all you hold dear.
FReegards,
Judith Anne
124 posted on 08/07/2005 2:57:33 PM PDT by Judith Anne (Thank you St. Jude for favors granted.)
"Hmmm... Not to argue, but my understanding is that Strep Suis is "quite common" in pigs"
I agree this is what I stated earlier it is endemic to most rural regions and most countries of the world. Be advised there are 36 serotypes and serotype 2 and 4 are the most virulent and dangerous for humans, these are not common. Further serotype 2 and 4 can and do produce less virulent and even non virulent strains. So you can see an anomalous statistic where proximity to porcine populations exists and 3rd hygiene protocols are in operation. (read China and parts of Asia in general)
The low human fatality statistic is not a safe one, detection is by PCR assay and in most cases we are able to diagnose this cause of death only recently. It is likely that a large proportion of bacterial meningeal fatalities in rural areas of developing countries can be attributed to S.suis infections, also TSS can claim many immune depressed. In short we do not have the resources to determine the causative agent for all bacterial meningeal and TSS fatalities the world over. In the main the likelihood of human infection from Strep suis is most likely to occur in countries where the resources and desire to discover these details is not present. In china's case the recent scrutiny over H5N1 is providing them a reason to draw attention away form H5N1 which is bad for trade to a slightly lesser problem of Strep suis.