A Case Report of Melioidosis

• Main Authors: G.N.D Perera, L.D Dias, A Kulatunga, E Corea, J Masakorala
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sri Lankan Society for Microbiology 2012-01-01
• Series: Sri Lankan Journal of Infectious Diseases
• Subjects: melioidosis; sri lanka; burkholderia pseudomallei
• Online Access: https://sljid.sljol.info/articles/3795

<p>Melioidosis is an emerging infection in Sri Lanka. Since the clinical presentation of melioidosis is not distinctive, a high index of clinical suspicion is required. Definitive diagnosis is usually made by isolation of the causative bacterium, <em>Burkholderia pseudomallei</em>, in culture. Although it is not a difficult bacterium to culture, initial identification of the isolate requires prior experience with <em>B. pseudomallei</em>. While preliminary identification can be performed in most microbiology laboratories confirmation of the isolate as <em>B. pseudomallei</em> requires access to a reference centre with resources to perform PCR testing and gene sequencing. A case report of a patient with acute onset of lung abscess with a positive sputum culture for <em>B. pseudomallei</em> is presented.</p><p>DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljid.v2i1.3795">http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljid.v2i1.3795</a></p><p><em>Sri Lankan Journal of Infectious Diseases </em>Vol.2(1) 2012: 47-51</p>