Meliodosis

Abstract

During the five-month wet season of 1977-1978 in Northern Queensland, six patients with bacteriologically proven melioidosis were successfully treated at the Townsville General Hospital, The clinical course and management of each case and laboratory findings are described. Factors which predisposed them to infection with Pseudomonas pseudomallei were diabetes mellitus, cancer, alcoholism, malnutrition, trauma, and pregnancy. Successful treatment of melioidosis relied on prompt laboratory diagnosis and appropriate chemotherapy together with surgical drainage of abscesses and management of concomitant diseases. The incidence of melioidosis in Northern Queensland has increased to the extent that it can no longer be considered a rare disease in this area. Because of increased internal and international travel, and displacement of refugees from endemic areas of Southeast Asia, physicians and microbiologists must maintain a high index of suspicion of melioidosis when dealing with patients after geographic exposure, as it is probable that, in the future, this disease witll be encountered more frequently in non-endemic areas.