Slaughtering a pig to make blood pudding for Tet - Beware of deadly diseases
Every time Tet comes, the number of patients hospitalized due to streptococcus suis increases, including many cases of patients in serious condition, even death.
MSc. Dr. Dong Phu Khiem - Deputy Head of the Department of Intensive Care, Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases said that at the end of the year, according to the customs of many localities, families will slaughter pigs to prepare dishes for Tet and other dishes.Blood puddingPork is also indispensable. This dish is the cause of the dangerous disease streptococcus suis.
Although the media has warned many times, the situation of eating pig's blood pudding is still quite common.
Dr. Khiem warns that when infected with streptococcus suis, the patient will suffer from multiple organ failure, purulent meningitis... when arriving at the hospital late, or even in cases where the patient arrives early, the treatment and resuscitation process for the patient will be extremely difficult.
"For example, in 2019, the hospital had about a few dozen severe cases of multiple organ failure and shock admitted. The number of patients with severe meningitis accounted for 50-60% of all meningitis cases where the cause was found to be streptococcus suis," said the Intensive Care specialist.
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| Patients with streptococcus suis are expensive to treat and are prone to critical multiple organ failure. Illustrative photo. |
MSc. Dr. Dong Phu Khiem added: The signs on the skin of patients infected with streptococcus suis are necrosis of the skin, hands, face... There are cases where recovery will have sequelae such as deafness, necrosis of the fingertips that must be amputated or dislocated.
There are cases where early detection and early treatment will have a high survival rate. There are cases where from eating to the onset of the disease only takes about 2-3 days with symptoms of fever, nausea, abdominal pain, and rash on the body.
According to Master, Doctor Dong Phu Khiem, for patientsstreptococcus suis infectionDuring treatment, patients will be given blood filtration, mechanical ventilation, and maximum resuscitation... However, some patients are still at serious risk. If they survive, the family will have to spend weeks of effort and money to care for the patient.
Therefore, Dr. Khiem recommends: People should absolutely not eat blood pudding, and should not use sick or dead pigs because there is a very high risk of streptococcus suis infection.
Streptococcal disease in humans is an acute bacterial infection transmitted from animals to humans through the digestive tract, mainly from pigs.
Symptoms of the disease: High fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, tinnitus, deafness, stiff neck, impaired perception, various bleeding in some parts of the body, cold body, low blood pressure... The disease often progresses severely and the mortality rate is very high. Currently there is no vaccine to prevent the disease.
To proactively prevent and control Streptococcus suis disease in humans during the Lunar New Year and the festival season in early 2021, the Department of Preventive Medicine, Ministry of Health recommends that people take the following measures:
1. Do not eat raw blood pudding and uncooked pork products.
2. Do not buy, sell, transport, or slaughter sick or dead pigs or pig products that are unsanitary or of unknown origin; do not use pork that is unusually red, hemorrhagic, or swollen.
3. Practice good personal hygiene, use gloves and necessary protective equipment when in contact with pigs, processing pork, and wash hands regularly with soap.
4. Destroy sick pigs and dead pigs according to regulations.
5. When symptoms of illness appear, go to a medical facility immediately for examination and timely treatment.