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Volume 31, Number 7—July 2025

Synopsis

Human Streptococcus suis Infections, South America, 1995–2024

M’hensa Vincent De Paul Bakpatina-Batako, Kevin Li, Sonia Lacouture, Lucía Cipolla, Ariel Gianecini, Mónica Prieto, Marcelo Gottschalk, and Nahuel FittipaldiComments to Author 
Author affiliation: Author affiliations: Université de Montréal Faculté de médecine vétérinaire, St-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada (M.V.D.P. Bakpatina-Batako, K. Li, S. Lacouture, M. Gottschalk, N. Fittipaldi); Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas, ANLIS Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán, Buenos Aires, Argentina (L. Cipolla, A. Gianecini, M. Prieto)

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Table 1

Summary of human Streptococcus suis infections, South America, 1995–2024*

Patient characteristics Argentina Brazil Chile French Guiana Uruguay South America
Total no. cases
 29
 5
 7†
 1
 5
 47
Sex
M 25 5 3 1 4 38
F 4 0 2 0 0 6
Not reported
 0
 0
 2
 0
 1
 3
Age, y
Mean age, y (range)‡ 46.6 (38–55) 65.6 (50–82) 49.6 (44–55) 42 (NA) 55 (50–66) 48.5 (38–82)
Median age, y‡ 47 68 48 NA 52 50
Not reported
 20
 0
 2
 0
 1
 23
Clinical manifestation
Meningitis 26 4 5 1 4 40
STSLS 1 1 0 0 0 2
Other§ 2 0 2 0 0 4
Not known
 0
 0
 0
 0
 1
 1
Outcomes
Recovered 27 5 5 1 5 43
Died 2 0 0 0 0 2
Hearing loss 1 3 1 1 1 7
Not known
 0
 0
 0
 0
 1
 1
Contact with pigs
Worker or farmer 18 3 2 1 4 28
Other contact¶ 4 2 1 0 0 7
No contact 7 0 0 0 0 7
Not known
 0
 0
 4
 0
 1
 5
Isolates
Serotyping
Reported# 26 1 7 1 0 35
Not reported 3 4 0 0 5 12
MLST
Reported** 25 0 0 1 0 26
Not reported 4 5 7 0 5 21

*MLST, multilocus sequence type; ST, sequence type; STSLS, streptococcal toxic shock-like syndrome. †Because 1 human isolate from Chile was available in PubMLST, an additional human case is possible. That isolate belonged to MLST ST1172, but it was not serotyped. Thus, whether that isolate represents an eighth human infection in Chile or if it corresponds to one of the 7 previously reported infections is not known. ‡One case occurring in a 1-y-old infant from Argentina was excluded when calculating mean, range, and median patient age. §Includes 1 case of septic arthritis and 1 case of endocarditis in Argentina and 2 cases of sepsis in Chile. ¶Includes contact while handling pigs for consumption, consuming undercooked pork, hunting wild boars, or a combination of those factors. #All cases where serotyping was performed revealed serotype 2 isolates except for 1 serotype 5 and 1 untypable isolate in Argentina. **All cases where MLST was performed revealed ST1 isolates, except for an ST5 strain that was retrospectively ascribed to ST483 in a different investigation (36).

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