On March 23, Associate Professor, Dr. Do Duy Cuong, Director of the Center for Tropical Diseases ( Bach Mai Hospital ) said that the Center is treating two critical cases of streptococcal infection. The first patient is Mr. DVK (41 years old, in Hung Yen province) who has purulent meningitis caused by streptococcus suis after 9 days of eating blood pudding. The second patient is Mr. HVE (73 years old, in Duy Tien town, Ha Nam province). The patient's family said that at noon on March 6, Mr. E was given a sick pig weighing about 50kg by a neighbor; he slaughtered the pig and cooked it by himself. This is a typical case of meningitis caused by streptococcus suis after having epidemiological factors of contact with a sick and dead pig (during the process of slaughtering a sick pig) and eating pork containing bacteria.
Associate Professor, Dr. Do Duy Cuong added that Streptococcus suis is a disease transmitted from pigs to humans. Most cases are related to slaughtering, eating raw blood pudding or foods made from undercooked pork... Currently, many restaurants use pig blood mixed with blood from geese, ducks, goats... for sale, so there are patients who eat goat blood pudding, duck blood pudding but test results show Streptococcus suis bacteria. Streptococcus suis disease usually incubates from a few hours to 4-5 days, depending on each person's constitution. When infected with Streptococcus suis, the patient has symptoms of fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, possibly diarrhea... so it is easy to confuse it with common digestive disorders and food poisoning. In severe cases, the patient may experience tinnitus, deafness, stiff neck, lethargy, delirium, necrotic rashes on the skin due to sepsis, multiple organ failure, blood clotting disorders, septic shock, and rapid death if not detected and treated promptly. Streptococcus suis has a mortality rate of up to 20-30%; if survived, the rate of sequelae is also very high, commonly irreversible deafness.
Also on this issue, specialist I, Major Pham Viet Anh, Deputy Head of the Department of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, Hospital 19-8 ( Ministry of Public Security ) informed reporters of the People's Army Newspaper that patients will be at risk of infection with small liver flukes, small intestinal flukes due to eating raw fish, eating raw fish salad and streptococcal disease in pigs when eating raw blood pudding or foods made from uncooked pork. People often mistakenly think that pigs raised by families, wild pigs, free-range pigs are clean pigs so they can eat blood pudding. In fact, no matter what conditions pigs are raised in, there is still a risk of infection with streptococcus in pigs if they eat raw blood pudding or food that is not hygienic and safe. The rate of asymptomatic streptococcal disease carriers in a pig herd accounts for over 60%. Dr. Viet Anh added: “Patients infected with liver flukes often have symptoms of prolonged abdominal pain, loss of appetite, fatigue, and weight loss. Small liver flukes can live in the human body for up to 25 years. They live in the liver, causing gallstones leading to cirrhosis and biliary fibrosis. Notably, small liver flukes after many years in the liver can cause biliary cancer leading to death. Everyone needs to adhere to eating cooked food and drinking boiled water, absolutely do not eat raw food. In addition, people who regularly eat raw food and have symptoms such as fever, headache, drowsiness... need to see a doctor soon.”
Not only pig blood pudding, doctors warn, goose, duck, goat blood pudding... also contains many types of bacteria, parasites that are harmful to health, especially the brain, so the cost of treatment is very expensive, up to hundreds of millions of dong. However, many people are still subjective, disregarding their health and life. Having the opportunity to return to their hometown in Van Xuan commune, Tam Nong district ( Phu Tho ) on the weekend, we recorded that many people still eat blood pudding dishes, especially pig blood pudding in the morning. Mr. Nguyen Van Minh in Van Xuan commune said: "The radio and newspapers propagate, but in my opinion, it depends on the pig. Only sick and diseased pigs are afraid, but healthy pigs are not to worry. I eat them a few times a month, so there is nothing wrong with them. Besides, drinking a few glasses of wine... sterilizes everything". This is a very common perception of many people without realizing that it is a deadly mistake.
Localities in our country have many traditional dishes that have existed for many generations. Besides dishes that are steamed, cooked, and refrigerated before use, there are also some dishes that are prepared and used unsafely, such as blood pudding, fish salad, pickled salted fish, etc., causing many poisoning cases due to streptococcus suis infection after eating blood pudding, tapeworm infection after eating fish salad, and Clostridium botulinum infection after eating pickled salted fish. Therefore, to limit unfortunate incidents, localities need to strengthen propaganda work to raise awareness and change people's eating habits. In particular, people need to raise awareness of protecting themselves, do not harm yourself for fun.
Article and photos: TUAN TRANG
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