Another case of Streptococcus suis infection was reported in Hong Kong yesterday, according to the special administrative region's Center for Health Protection, bringing its total number of cases this year to nine.

The 44-year-old man, a butcher at Huikang Supermarket in Tunmen District, was hospitalized on August 12 with a fever and pain in his right little finger and left thigh and is in a stable condition, according to a government press release.
   
He had no recent history of travel outside Hong Kong, but did have a finger injury that may have been the route of infection. The people he lives with have reported no symptoms.

The supermarket involved has removed all pork from its shelves and arranged health checks for its butchers, but the Center for Health Protection said it suspected infected meat may have been sold before the case was reported, and that other infections could not be ruled out.
   
Streptococcus suis has been identified as the pathogen behind the pig-borne epidemic in southwest China's Sichuan Province that, according to the most recent Ministry of Health report on August 8, killed 39 people and infected 214 there since June 24.

Two cases have also been reported in the southern province of Guangdong, which neighbors Hong Kong, since the beginning of the Sichuan outbreak, though their cause has not been established.

The last case of infection reported in Hong Kong was of a 78-year-old woman admitted to hospital on August 8 and reported last Thursday as being in a stable condition.

(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn August 17, 2005)