interesting facts about Burkholderia pseudomallei
For those of you wondering what I'm working on, here is some interesting stuff (at least to me it is):B. pseudomallei was first named melioidosis which is Greek: μελίσ [melis] meaning a distemper of asses; ε ίδoσ [eidos] meaning resemblance. In 1912 Captain Alfred Whitmore and C.S. Krishnaswami wrote "An account of the discovery of a hitherto undescribed infectoius disease occurring amoung the population of Rangoon" while working at the recently opened Rangoon General Hpspital in Burma. A year later Whitmore wrote "An account of a glanders-like disease occurring in Rangoon". Glanders which is an abscess forming bacterial infection in horses (occassionally humans) from Burkholderia mallei. It was rather commmon 100 years ago across Asia, but very rare now. There was a rise in reported cases during & after WWII, from the soldiers fighting during the war times. It is a category B as far as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are concerned.
The bacerium is an aerobic, non spore forming, motile, gram negative bacillus. It is intrinsically resistant to quite a number of antibiotics. It can survive in triple distilled water for years, aka it's very difficult to kill!!
Melioidosis presents as a febrile illness, ranging from septicaemia to choronic localised infection, usually without a wound site. The overall mortality in adults in Thailand is around 50%. It primarily infects adults with predisposing condtions such as diabetes mellitus. The lung is the primary organ affected, though abscesses can appear in any organ (liver & spleen commonly).
There is no vaccine and with it's resistance to antibiotics, aren't you all happy you don't have this disease?!?!?!
Labels: melioidosis
posted by Sara @ 4:23 pm
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