Melioidosis, an environmental and occupational hazard in Thailand

Abstract

Melioidosis is a tropical environmental hazard that causes acute and chronic pulmonary disease, abscesses of the skin and internal organs, meningitis, brain abscess and cerebritis, and acute fulminant rapidly fatal sepsis. It is more common among adults, individuals with diabetes, and individuals with chronic renal disease, but it can occur in normal hosts and children. Burkholderia pseudomellei is the most prevalent cause of community-acquired pneumonia, liver and splenic abscess, and sepsis in northeastern Thailand. Melioidosis can reactivate years after primary infection and result in chronic or acute life-threatening disease. With increasing worldwide travel and migration, patients may present in nonendemic countries with reactivation melioidosis decades after leaving an endemic region. We discuss seven selected patients presenting with this disease to a tertiary care facility in Bangkok between 1995 and 1997. Awareness should allow early diagnosis and treatment, which can lead to decreased morbidity and mortality.