A rare case of meningitis and septicemia caused by Streptococcus suis in a woman without a history of live pig contact or eating raw pork

Zhu, Yijun; Zhu, Fang; Bo, Lihong; Fang, Yinfei; Shan, Xiaoyun

Streptococcus suis (S. suis) is a zoonotic pathogen that primarily inhabits the upper respiratory tract of pigs. Therefore, pigs that carry these pathogens are the major source of infection. Most patients are infected through contact with live pigs or unprocessed pork products and eating uncooked pork. S. Suis mainly causes sepsis and meningitis. The disease has an insidious onset and rapid progress. The patient becomes critically ill and the mortality is high. In this case report, we described a rare case of S. suis isolated from a middle-aged woman in Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, China, who did not have any contact with live pigs and had not eaten uncooked pork. S. Suis was isolated from both the patient’s blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples.