The CDC has issued a nationwide warning, and told doctors to watch out for these symptoms.
A potentially fatal bacteria has been detected in the U.S. for the first time. Burkholderia pseudomallei, discovered in soil and water samples along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, can cause an illness called melioidosis, which is deadly in up to half of known cases globally.
Two people who live near where the bacteria has been detected have been hospitalized. “Genomic sequencing data revealed the two patients were infected by the same novel strain from the Western Hemisphere,” the CDC said. “Both patients were hospitalized with sepsis due to pneumonia and had known risk factors for melioidosis.”
The CDC has issued a nationwide warning and told doctors to watch out for symptoms that are frustratingly non-specific, and depend heavily on the area infected. Melioidosis can occur as a localized infection or a disseminated infection, and can present like pneumonia. It can infect any organ, including the brain, and symptoms range from a cough to a fever, weight loss, localized pain or swelling, chest pain, disorientation and seizures.
Burkholderia pseudomalle tends to spread via contaminated soil and water through broken skin. Symptoms usually appear within 1-21 days, in about a week on average. Interpersonal transmission is thankfully unlikely.
Some people may be more vulnerable to melioidosis than others. “The most common underlying conditions that make a person more likely to become sick with or die from melioidosis include diabetes, excessive alcohol use, chronic lung disease, chronic kidney disease, and immunosuppressive conditions,” says the CDC.
A 2019 study that says the disease kills an estimated 90,000 annually also highlights the discrepancy in the death rate depending on location.
“In Southeast Asia … the in-hospital mortality exceeds 40%,” it says. In northern Australia however, “early recognition and access to high-quality intensive care unit (ICU) support in the country’s well-resourced health system have reduced the disease’s case fatality rate to approximately 10%.”
Per the CDC, “Worldwide, 10-50% of melioidosis cases result in death.”
