Melioidosis cases detected in Dhaka, Bangladesh: a positive impact of 3rd South Asian melioidosis congress-2023

Abstract

Melioidosis is a fatal infectious disease caused by the gram-negative soil dwelling bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei. Bangladesh is considered a definite country for melioidosis owing to the isolation of the organism both from clinical samples as well as soil. Only around 100 cases of melioidosis have been diagnosed sporadically in the country for the past 60 years till October 2023 and about 90 % of these cases were detected in BIRDEM General Hospital. A dilemma existed for researchers worldwide whether the disease is actually rare in this part of the continent or whether it is the limitation of our clinicians and microbiologists keeping the disease neglected due to a lack of clinical and laboratory suspicion, knowledge gap and occasionally lack of adequate laboratory facilities. Consequently, to overcome these obstacles, a group of dedicated researchers began conducting workshops, seminars and finally arranged the 3rd South Asian Melioidosis Congress-2023 to disseminate knowledge on the fatality of the disease and ways to detect and manage the cases among the physicians all over the country. The outstanding outcome of these melioidosis centered educational sessions was the isolation and identification of nine melioidosis cases from different clinical settings of the country, other than BIRDEM. We present the nine melioidosis cases with different clinical manifestations. Interestingly, 33.3 % patients were non-diabetic, although two of the nine patients had other chronic illness, while a young patient of 28 years had no known co-morbidities at all. Eight of the nine patients recovered after six months treatment, while one patient unfortunately expired. The case series is expected to raise vigilance among the concerned physicians and microbiologists of the country to keep the suspicion of melioidosis at the back of their mind in high risk patients, thus improving the chance of early diagnoses and management.