Streptococcus suis meningitis complicated with permanent perceptive deafness: report of a case.

A 61-year-old pig farmer was found to be suffering from meningitis caused by Streptococcus suis type II. He was successfully treated with intravenous penicillin G but was left with permanent deafness. B-cell lymphoma was also diagnosed one year later. S. suis is a zoonotic pathogen which causes meningitis, septicemia and endocarditis in pigs. Human infection is rare and often presents as meningitis with the sequela of permanent deafness. It has previously been reported in pig rearing countries such as Holland or Hong Kong. This is the second documented case of human meningitis caused by S. suis in Taiwan, which is also a major pig rearing country in Asia. Infections caused by viridans streptococci or other beta-hemolytic streptococci in Taiwan may therefore actually be due to S. suis. Further investigation of the possibility of the underlying deficiency of humoral immunity is warranted.