Fatal acute melioidosis in a tourist returning from Martinique Island, November 2010.

L Gétaz, M Abbas, L Loutan, J Schrenzel, A Iten, F Simon, A Decosterd, R Studer, P Sudre, Y Michel, P Merlani, S Emonet

Department of Community Medicine and Primary Care, Geneva University Hospitals, University of Geneva, Switzerland. laurent.getaz@hcuge.ch

Euro surveillance : bulletin Européen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin 2011

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We report the fatal case of acute melioidosis in a patient returning from Martinique with fever in November 2010. Gram-negative rods were isolated from a blood culture and Burkholderia pseudomallei identified within 24 hours after first medical contact. The patient died two days after admission to hospital despite intravenous therapy with high doses of imipenem/cilastatin and intensive care. Clinicians seeing travellers returning from the subtropics or tropics with severe pneumonia or septicaemia should consider the possibility of acute melioidosis.

Citation

L Gétaz, M Abbas, L Loutan, J Schrenzel, A Iten, F Simon, A Decosterd, R Studer, P Sudre, Y Michel, P Merlani, S Emonet. Fatal acute melioidosis in a tourist returning from Martinique Island, November 2010. Euro surveillance : bulletin Européen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin. 2011;16(1)