METHODS: A 5-year retrospective study was carried out on patients admitted with culture positive for melioidosis from year 2013 to 2017 in Hospital Teluk Intan, Perak.
RESULTS: There were a total of 46 confirmed cases of melioidosis. Majority of the patients were working in the agricultural and farming (28.6%), and factories (25.7%). Thirty-one patients had diabetes mellitus (71.1%). Presentations of patients with melioidosis included pneumonia (54.3%), skin and soft tissue infection (19.6%), deep abscesses (15.2%) and bone and joint infections (13%). An average of 5.8 days was needed to confirm the diagnosis of melioidosis via positive culture. However, only 39.4% of these patients were started on ceftazidime or carbapenem as the empirical therapy. The intensive care unit (ICU) admission rate for melioidosis was 46% and the mortality rate was 52%. Our microbial cultures showed good sensitivity towards cotrimoxazole (97.1%), ceftazidime (100%) and carbapenem (100%).
CONCLUSION: Melioidosis carries high mortality rate, especially with lung involvement and bacteremia. Physicians should have high clinical suspicion for melioidosis cases to give appropriate antimelioidosis therapy early.
METHODOLOGY: From January 2001 to December 2005, we reviewed case reports of all bacteraemic melioidosis admitted to a tertiary teaching hospital, Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia.
RESULTS: Thirty-five patients had positive blood culture for meliodosis and 27 case reports were traceable for further analysis. The mean age was 46.8 + 20.0 years. Twenty patients (74.1%) were male. The main clinical presentation was fever that occurred in 23 (85.2%) patients. Eighteen patients (66.7%) had lung involvement and three patients had liver abscess. Two patients presented with scrotal swelling, one of whom further developed Fournier's Gangrene. Nineteen (70.4%) patients had underlying diabetes, five of whom were newly diagnosed during the admission. Thirteen (48.1%) patients were treated with high-dose ceftazidime and six (22.2%) patients were treated with imipenem. Eight (29.6%) patients were not given anti-melioidosis therapy because the causative agents were not identified until after the patients died. The patients were admitted 16.8 days + 18.1. Seventeen patients (63.0%) died in this series, 13 patients of whom died within four days of admission.
CONCLUSIONS: The wide range of clinical presentations and the fatal outcomes of melioidosis require a high level of suspicion among physicians to develop an early appropriate therapy and reduce the mortality rate.
CASE PRESENTATION: Melioidosis is uncommon in pregnancy but both spontaneous abortion and neonatal melioidosis have been reported. We report a case of bacteraemic melioidosis in a young woman with a subsequent spontaneous abortion, with B. pseudomallei cultured from a high vaginal swab as well as blood.
CONCLUSION: It remains unclear in this and previously reported cases as to whether the maternal melioidosis was sexually transmitted.