Melioidosis: A Case Report

Melioidosis is a potentially fatal infectious disease that is endemic in Southeast Asia and Australia. It is caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei, an aerobic, non-sporeforming, motile, gram (-) bacillus. Natural aquatic environment and agricultural lands such as wet, muddy rice fields and vegetable plantations abundant in the tropics are considered the primary reservoir of the organism from which susceptible hosts acquire infection. It is considered as the most common cause not only of a fatal community-acquired septicemia but also it outranks Streptococcus pneumoniae as the most common cause of fatal community-acquired pneumonia. Cases of melioidosis have been seen in the United Kingdom from both animals and in humans from the Philippines. However, clinical melioidosis from the Philippines has not yet been reported in the world literature. Therefore, a documented case of septicemic melioidosis is presented in the hope that greater awareness of the disease among clinicians, microbiologists, and public health experts will result not only in the diagnosis of cases that might previously have gone unrecognized but also to encourage epidemiologic studies and environmental surveys to establish the prevalence of Burkholderia pseudomallei in the Philippines. [Phil