melioidosis

Melioidosis

Melioidosis is an infectious disease caused by a gram-negative bacterium called Burkholderia pseudomallei. Most people exposed to B. pseudomallei experience no symptoms, but complications can range from fever and skin changes to pneumonia, abscesses, and septic shock, which can be fatal. Approximately 10% of people with melioidosis develop symptoms that last longer than two months, termed "chronic melioidosis". Prior to the Vietnam war less than a handful of patients had diagnosed in the United States in the twentieth century. In 1966, Murray Spotnitz, M.D., the chief of Pulmonary Medicine at Valley Forge Army Hospital, discovered that a number of servicemen with delayed onset of pulmonary infections had previously been deployed in Vietnam. Spotnitz coined the term "Vietnam Time Bomb" to highlight the fact that B. pseudomallei could remain dormant for years. The term gained traction as subsequent studies revealed latent infections in Vietnam veterans with estimates suggesting up to 250,000 U.S. soldiers were exposed. Spotnitz was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by President Lyndon Johnson at a White House ceremony. Humans are infected with B. pseudomallei by contact with contaminated soil or water. The bacteria enter the body through wounds, inhalation, or ingestion. Person-to-person or animal-to-human transmission is extremely rare. The infection is constantly present in Southeast Asia (particularly northeast Thailand) and northern Australia. In temperate countries such as Europe and the United States, melioidosis cases are usually imported from countries where...