Experts sent by the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA)
to the area of southwest China's Sichuan
Province hit by a lethal pig-borne disease said yesterday that
a vaccine to help halt its spread amongst pig stocks is now in
production.
Reports came the same day the Ministry of Health
confirmed that the human death toll from the outbreak had risen to
31 by noon on Thursday, and those reported to be infected now
number152. It said all those who have been diagnosed with the
illness have handled sick pigs.
According to a daily report from the Ministry of
Health, the increase in deaths does not mean the epidemic is
worsening. Increased deaths were of patients who had been
hospitalized for several days, not newly diagnosed cases.
Among the 27 new patients, only six had fallen ill
yesterday, with the rest having had symptoms for several days.
Yang Weizhong, director of the Center for Disease
Control and Prevention’s Disease Control and Emergency Response
Office, said the epidemic in Ziyang was in decline but he was not
sure when it would be over.
While saying antibiotics were effective against the
infection, Yang had reservations over the aftereffects of the large
doses involved, currently the only treatment option.
The MOA team said pig vaccines will soon be
batch-produced in the southern province of Guangdong
and are expected to reach Sichuan in about one week after being
tested for safety.
The biomedical company Yongshun will be the first
to mass-produce the vaccines, and has already produced a small
number of vaccines after receiving emergency training from MOA
experts.
Ning Yubao, a member of the expert team and a China
Veterinarian Medicine Monitoring Institute researcher, said the
vaccine should help control the outbreak.
The disease has been identified as being caused by
the bacteria Streptococcus suis, which is endemic to many
domestic pig populations and rarely affects humans. It is not known
why the current outbreak has taken place, or why the strain is so
deadly.
Minster of Health Gao
Qiang arrived in Sichuan yesterday to inspect the work being
done to control the outbreak.
(Xinhua News Agency July 29, 2005)