The two victims were Pham Thi Nguyet, 45, living in Binh Tay village, Dai Thang commune, and Nguyen Nguyen, 43, in An Chanh village, Dai Tan commune. They were both butchers.

Mr Nguyet was hospitalized on 7 Febraury with high fever, abdominal pain, and vomiting. She died on the following day.

The second victim was admitted to the provincial hospital on 9 February with similar clinical symptoms and also died on the following day.

The provincial Department of Animal Health took blood samples from the sick pigs in the localities and sent them to the Animal Health Sub-institute in Da Nang city for testing.

The provincial Department of Preventive Medicine confirmed that S. suis had attacked herds of local pigs, causing the disease to break out.

Dam Xuan Thanh, Deputy Head of the Animal Health Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said on Friday that there are no effective vaccines against S. suis.

Blood samples of pigs infected with blue ear disease showed negative for S. suis People should protect themselves from the disease by cooking food before eating, Thanh warned.

The department carried out epidemiological surveillance against 62 people who slaughtered and ate the sick pigs.

Last year, three local people were infected with S. suis in Quang Nam and two of them died. Quang Nam province is also currently reported with blue-ear pig disease, which infected some 25,000 pigs in the locality.