Streptococcus suis infection: An emerging/reemerging challenge of bacterial infectious diseases?

Feng, Youjun; Zhang, Huimin; Wu, Zuowei; Wang, Shihua; Cao, Min; Hu, Dan; Wang, Changjun

Two kinds of non-SS2 serotypes have been determined in sporadic cases of human S. suis infections: One of these is SS14, 13 and the other is SS16. 16 Poggenborg and coworker 189 reported a pig-farm worker with SS14 meningitis and septicaemia complicated with thoracal and lumbar spine spondylodiscitis. Similarly, Ahmed et al. 13 also documented a meningitis case caused by SS14 infections, in a female patient with occupational exposure to piglets each day. Of particular note, totally 12 cases of human SS14 infections were identified in Thailand during 2006-2008, and their clinical presentations included meningitis, septic arthritis and sepsis. 14 Further analyses demonstrated that 11 of the 12 SS14 isolates from these patients belonged to the multilocus sequence types (ST) 105, suggesting clonal dissemination of ST105 strains in Thailand. In another neighboring Asian country, Vietnam, a fatal case of human SS16 infection was revealed by Schultsz's research group, 16 indicating multiple serotypes of S. suis are developing into human pathogens circulating in this country. Together, non-SS2 serotypes of S. suis have also exhibited its zoonotic potential, highlighting a great demand for monitoring their epidemiology and development of relevant approaches applied toward prevention and therapeutics.