Pet food worker gets toxic shock from carcass

By Tamara McLean

A WORKER in a pet food processing plant has suffered from Australia's first reported case of toxic shock syndrome caused by an infected pig carcass.

And doctors investigating the case believe three more human infections have been recorded elsewhere in Australia.

The 41-year-old man developed the human form of the deadly pig disease streptococcus suis while processing animals at a Melbourne plant in April 2007.

The case, reported for the first time in the Medical Journal of Australia today, is the first seen in Australia.

Outbreaks of the disease have killed meat workers in Asia, most recently in China where 215 butchers and processors were infected in 2005, killing more than half.

In the Australian case, the processor survived his week-long bout of severe fever, headache, diarrhoea, vomiting and dizziness.

He made a full recovery and has since changed jobs, his treating doctors at Royal Melbourne Hospital said in the journal.

A worksite visit to the plant raised no occupational health and safety concerns.

"To our knowledge, our patient is the first human case of streptococcus suis toxic shock syndrome in Australia," Adrian Tramontana said.

"However, since submission of this manuscript there have been at least three unpublished recent human cases in other parts of Australia.", said Dr Tramontana.

Investigating the phenomenon, the doctors said Victoria reported 33 cases of the bug in pigs between 2002 and 2006, with no recent increase.

The bug is caught through contact with infected pigs or pork and is transferred through wounds or inhalation.

The doctors warned that quick identification of the human disease was vital "as mortality may be high without timely treatment".

Original article posted 4 May 2008.