The mysterious pig disease that killed almost 40 people on the Chinese mainland has now infected an elderly woman on Hong Kong.
According to the government of Hong Kong, the woman is 79-years-old and now hospitalized in critical condition. She has not recently traveled outside of Hong Kong.
Government officials say she is the fifth person to contract the disease in Hong Kong since the outbreak began. The disease is suspected to be caused by Streptococcus suis bacteria.
Officials fear that the disease could be spread via food. Hong Kong imports much of its food from the southern region of China where the most recent outbreak took place.
Meanwhile, an expert on Streptococcus suis bacteria says he fears that the latest outbreak may be a new strain of the disease.
'What is happening in China is that you don't see meningitis, which is the typical symptom, [instead] you see toxic shock, bleeding under the skin and the incubation time is shorter,' explained Marcello Gottschalk.
Gottschalk also noted the mortality rate is significantly higher.
'Typically, the mortality rate is less than 5 per cent in humans, but this time it's different. People are dying very fast, sometimes within hours, and there is a mortality rate of more than 20 percent,' he said.
Gottschalk suspects that Streptococcus suis has combined with other strains to make a more deadly disease.
Additional research in this area is expected very soon as health officials try to stop the spread of this deadly outbreak.
