A deadly swine disease that killed at least 38 people and sickened scores more in southwest China has been brought under control, the country's health and agriculture ministries said Sunday.
No new human cases of the virus have been reported since August 4 in China's Sichuan province, where it originally appeared, affecting a total of 204 people, the Xinhua news agency cited the ministries as saying in a report.
Twenty people remain hospitalised after coming into contact with sick or dead pigs, or handling pork infected with the streptococcus suis virus, Xinhua said.
Nowhere in the world have more people been struck down by the streptococcus suis bacteria – which usually affects pigs, not humans – since the first human case was recorded in Denmark in 1968.
China's central government has ordered local governments across the country to tighten supervision of pork markets and has banned the butchering, transport and sale of dead or sick pigs to prevent the disease from spreading.
At least eight government officials were sacked for failing to prevent farmers from butchering sick pigs or fabricating reports saying infected pigs had been hygienically disposed of, Xinhua said.
