By Ho Binh Minh

HANOI, July 24 (Reuters) - Vietnam must speed investigations into a pig disease that has struck 42 people killing two, the agriculture minister said, calling for urgent measures to contain the bacteria.

Cao Duc Phat told health officials at a meeting that initial assessments showed the disease caused by Streptococcus suis bacteria had spread in the country, the Vietnam Agriculture newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The bacteria emerged only recently in the country of 85 million people, infecting 22 people in the northern provinces followed by 20 in the southern region.

Animal health authorities nationwide should increase disease surveillance, work out treatment measures for pigs and publish information to raise public awareness, Phat said.

"Since the disease involving Streptococcus suis bacteria is directly related to human health and the development of the husbandry sector so we need to act urgently, without any delay," Phat was quoted as saying at the Monday meeting.

He urged officials to check if there were any links between the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) virus, also known as Lelystad virus that has infected more than 27,000 pigs in the central region, and the Streptococcus suis bacteria.

People catch the bacteria after coming into direct contact either by hand or eating pork from a sick pig, Nguyen Hong Ha deputy head of the National Institute for Infectious and Tropical Diseases, said in a Voice of Vietnam radio broadcast.

The bacteria causes rapid internal haemorrhage and high fever and can develop meningitis, septicaemia and endocarditis in the next stage leading to death or deafness if the victim survives.

Eating pig blood pudding -- a popular dish to go with rice wine in rural Vietnam areas -- is extremely dangerous due to high density of the bacteria in blood, Ha said.

"For the sake of the community and our future we should not try to sell (the sick pig), it must be destroyed," he said.

On Monday, Minister Phat said the PRRS, also known as 'blue ear disease', had been spreading fast in the central provinces of Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and Danang city partly because officials were unable to stop trading and transport of pigs.

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