Korean J Lab Med.  2009 Apr;29(2):140-144. 10.3343/kjlm.2009.29.2.140.

A Case of Disseminated Melioidosis in a Migrant Worker from Thailand

• Lee HM
• Choi SH
• Chung JW
• Ahn J
• Cho AR
• Lee MK
• Chang KJ

• KMID: 854972
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3343/kjlm.2009.29.2.140

Abstract

With globalization, foreign patients are frequently encountered at the clinical practice in Korea. As the number of migrant workers from Southeast Asia has been notably rising since the late 1990's, unfamiliar tropical infectious diseases that they bring out, may give great challenges to the routine clinical practice in Korea. Melioidosis is a community-acquired infection caused by a gram-negative bacillus, Burkholderia pseudomallei. It has been endemic in Southeast Asia and Northern Australia, where B. pseudomallei is a soil saprophyte and invades the host through inoculation or inhalation. It frequently presents as an acute septicemia with a high mortality rate of 40%, mainly in patients with chronic underlying diseases, such as diabetes mellitus. Recently, we encountered a case of fatal disseminated melioidosis in a migrant worker from Thailand. We suggest an importance of melioidosis as a cause of community-acquired sepsis in migrant workers from Southeast Asia.

Keyword

Melioidosis; Burkholderia pseudomallei; Migrant Worker

MeSH Terms

Adult
*Burkholderia pseudomallei
Drug Resistance, Multiple
Humans
Male
Melioidosis/*diagnosis/pathology/radiography
Thailand
Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1. Chest CT scan (A) showing bilateral multiple nodules, and abdomen CT scans (B) showing multiple low density lesions in the liver and spleen (arrows).

• 

  Fig. 2. Microscopic finding of Burkholderia pseudomallei showing safety pin shaped gram negative rods (×1,000) (A) and colonies on blood agar after 48 (B) and 96 (C) hours incubation. The organism's colonial morphology changes more rugose as the incubation is extended.

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