In recent days, medical facilities have continuously received critical cases of streptococcal infection after eating blood pudding, pig intestines or processed pork.
Most recently, a 59-year-old female patient (in Hanoi ) was transferred to the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases in a state of septicemia due to streptococcus after eating cooked pig intestines, not rare or raw food... causing many people to worry.
Image of patient with streptococcal sepsis
According to Dr. Pham Van Phuc, Deputy Head of the Intensive Care Unit, Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Streptococcus suis is a type of bacteria that often resides in the upper respiratory tract such as the nose, digestive tract and genitals of pigs. This bacteria can cause disease in pigs and humans. In particular, even if pigs are raised cleanly, it does not mean that disease-causing bacteria do not exist in this animal species.
Streptococcus suis has two main clinical forms, the most common of which are sepsis and purulent meningitis. The disease progresses very quickly. Only a few hours after symptoms of abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting or rash appear on the body. If hospitalized when the disease is severe, the patient is at risk of necrosis of the skin, hands, face and severe sequelae on the body such as: deafness, amputation of fingers...
Doctor examines a patient infected with streptococcus. Photo: M.Thanh
According to doctors, most people infected with Streptococcus suis and get sick mainly due to direct contact with sick pigs, pigs carrying the disease-causing bacteria, secretions of sick pigs (feces, urine) or by eating products processed from undercooked sick pigs such as: pig blood pudding, eating raw meat, rare meat, spring rolls, undercooked sick pork.
However, in some cases, patients who do not eat blood pudding or slaughter pigs still get sick. The cause is eating infected pork that is cooked undercooked or raw, or coming into contact with infected pigs through skin injuries or scratches during food preparation.
Previously, the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases admitted a 60-year-old male patient (in Nam Dinh ) with sepsis and kidney failure due to streptococcal infection. This man did not eat blood pudding but had many scratches on his hands. Before that, he helped slaughter pigs for a neighbor's house. About a week later, he started having a fever, a necrotic rash on his skin and was taken to the hospital by his family.
Doctors warn that blood pudding is a dish that has the potential to cause streptococcal disease.
According to Dr. Nguyen Trung Cap, Deputy Director of the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases, a patient with purulent meningitis must be hospitalized for at least 3 weeks, while patients with sepsis must be treated for up to 2 months, costing hundreds of millions of dong, depending on the sequelae. Some patients are too severe to survive.
Streptococcus suis bacteria are completely destroyed when food is thoroughly cooked. To prevent the disease, people should not slaughter sick or dead pigs, should not handle raw pork with bare hands, especially when there are wounds on the hands, should wear gloves when in contact with rare or raw pork; wash hands thoroughly after processing meat.
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