ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics,diagnosis,treatment and prognosis of human swine streptococcosis occurred in some areas of Jiangsu Province from late summer to autumn since 1998.Methods The epidemiologic and clinical features of 42 cases were collected and analyzed.The bio- chemical features of strains isolated from patient's blood or cerebrospinal fluid(CSF) were tested,and the homogeneity were compared among 15 Streptococcus suisⅡ.Results All patients had acute infection toxe- mic symptoms such as chill,fever,headache and malaise etc.Toxic shock syndrome or meningitis syndrome were the major clinical manifestations.Forty two cases of human swine streptococosis were classified into 3 types:the rates of general,shock and meningitis type were 7.1% (3/42),38.1% (16/42) and 54.7%(23/42),respectively.Ten patients were died of shock type,32 were cured.Strain isolated from patients was identified as Streptococcus suisⅡby API-Strep,the biochemical reactional code was 0641473,and appraised result was 99.9%.There was highly homogeneity in the strains of Streptococcus suisⅡisolated from patients and sick pigs identified by genomic fingerprinting.Com- bined therapy of large doses of penicillin G and ceftriaxone was effective in these patients.Conclusions Human swine streptococosis is zoonosis caused by Streptococcus suisⅡand the clinical manifesta- tions are variable.In the cases of shock type,the onset of disease is stormy and the fatality rate is very high.While the prognosis of general and meningitis type is good and the majority of the cases are cured by effective antibiotic therapy.