[A case of disseminated melioidosis in a migrant worker from Thailand].
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.
Lee
Hye-Min
HM
Department of Internal Medicine, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, Korea.
Choi
Seong-Ho
SH
Chung
Jin-Won
JW
Ahn
Jihyun
J
Cho
Ah Ra
AR
Lee
Mi Kyung
MK
Chang
Kyu Jin
KJ
D000328:Adult; D016957:Burkholderia pseudomallei; D018432:Drug Resistance, Multiple; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008554:Melioidosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D013785:Thailand; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed