Melioidosis in the United States

The following background data are abstracted from Gideon www.GideonOnline.com and the Gideon e-book series [1,2] (primary references available on request) The first case of melioidosis in the Western hemisphere was diagnosed in the United States in 1945 – an American who had worked in the Panama Canal Zone during 1927 to 1928. Sporadic autochthonous cases (five reports to 2013) have been reported from Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Ohio and California. The fifth case of autochthonous melioidosis was reported in Ohio in 2013. Imported cases have originated from Laos, Mexico, Viet Nam and Thailand. Two cases imported from Honduras were reported in Florida in 2005; and an American girl acquired the disease in Aruba in 2011 (publication year). A case of pneumonia and septicemia caused by Burkholderia thailandensis has been reported in the United States. It has been estimated that 225,000 seropositive Army personnel returned from Viet Nam, and may still be at risk for reactivation. 81 individual case reports (14 fatal cases) of melioidosis acquired in Vietnam were published during 1965 to 1969. In one case, a Vietnam veteran developed melioidosis 29 years after returning to the United States. In another instance, a veteran developed the disease 63 years following return from the Pacific region. Venereal transmission was reported from a Vietnam veteran to his wife in the United States. 38% of American Marines acquired seropositivity toward melioidosis following a two-w...
Source: GIDEON blog - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: Ebooks Epidemiology ProMED Melioidosis Source Type: blogs