Fact sheets
The Department of Health, Western Australia, does not produce fact sheets on this topic.
Public Health action
Notifiable disease data and reports
Additional sources of information
Case definition
Confirmed case
Clinical and laboratory evidence.
In a patient with a clinically compatible illness:
1. Detection of Burkholderia pseudomallei in blood culture or other specimen
OR
2. Detection of B. pseudomallei in blood or other sterile site specimens by nucleic acid amplification test.
Clinical picture
Pneumonia is the most common clinical presentation of melioidosis, ranging from a mild respiratory illness to a severe pneumonia with septicaemia, with a mortality rate often over 50%. Other presentations include skin abscesses or ulcers, internal abscesses of the prostate, kidney, spleen and liver, fulminant septicaemia, and neurological illnesses such as brainstem encephalitis and acute flaccid paralysis. Asymptomatic infection can occur and in a small proportion of these people the infection can re-activate from a latent form many years later.
