Melioidosis in Australia
Timothy JJ Inglis
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, and Marshall Centre, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Western Australia; and Department of Microbiology, PathWest Laboratory Medicine, QEII Medical Centre, Nedlands, WA, Australia. Email: tim.inglis@uwa.edu.au
Microbiology Australia 42(2) 96-99 https://doi.org/10.1071/MA21027
Submitted: 15 March 2021 Accepted: 30 April 2021 Published: 20 May 2021
Journal Compilation © The Authors 2021 Open Access CC BY-NC-ND, published (by CSIRO Publishing) on behalf of the ASM
Abstract
Melioidosis is a potentially fatal bacterial infection caused by the Gram-negative bacillus, Burkholderia pseudomallei following contact with a contaminated environmental source, normally soil or water in tropical and subtropical locations. The disease spectrum varies from rapidly progressive bacteraemic infection with or without pneumonia, to focal lesions in deep soft tissues and internal organs to superficial soft tissue infection and asymptomatic seroconversion with possible long-term dormancy. Most infections occur with a background of chronic illness such as diabetes, chronic kidney disease and alcoholic liver disease. Improvements in diagnosis, targeted antimicrobial treatment and long term follow up have improved clinical outcomes. Environmental controls following rare point source case clusters and heightened awareness of melioidosis appear to have reduced the disease burden in some parts of northern Australia. However, the impact of climate change on dispersal of environmental B. pseudomallei, and changing land use in tropical Australia is expected to change the epidemiology of melioidosis in future.
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