Gert van der Hoek
In Memoriam - Editor, Senior Moderator
TUESDAY 12 JANUARY 2016
BANGKOK ? An often deadly and difficult to treat bacterial disease is much more prevalent than previously thought and kills tens of thousands of people worldwide each year, researchers said today (Jan 11).
Melioidosis, also known as Whitmore?s disease, has long been known to be endemic in parts of South and East Asia, the Pacific and northern Australia.
But a new analysis by a team of international researchers suggests the disease is also present across swathes of South America and sub-Saharan Africa and likely present in parts of Central America, southern Africa and the Middle East.
?Our estimates suggest that melioidosis is severely under-reported in the 45 countries in which it is known to be endemic and that melioidosis is probably endemic in a further 34 countries that have never reported the disease,? researchers led by Oxford University, the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) in Bangkok and the University of Washington in Seattle wrote in a report.
It was published today in Nature Microbiology.
It is the first time scientists have attempted to map the disease?s global spread using computer modelling based on data from known outbreaks going back to 1910.
The disease, which often affects the rural poor working in fields, is notoriously difficult to diagnose because it mimics many other bacterial infections but only responds to a handful of antibiotics. As a result, misdiagnosis is common.
The mortality rate ? around 70 per cent ? is shockingly high, greater even than the H5N1 bird flu.
Researchers estimated that as many as 89,000 people out of the the 165,000 people who caught melioidosis in 2015 died from the disease.
They noted that annual global deaths from the disease were nearly as high as measles (95,000) and greater than deaths from leptospirosis (50,000) and dengue (12,500) ? ?two current health priorities for many international health organisations?.
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BANGKOK ? An often deadly and difficult to treat bacterial disease is much more prevalent than previously thought and kills tens of thousands of people worldwide each year, researchers said today (Jan 11).
Melioidosis, also known as Whitmore?s disease, has long been known to be endemic in parts of South and East Asia, the Pacific and northern Australia.
But a new analysis by a team of international researchers suggests the disease is also present across swathes of South America and sub-Saharan Africa and likely present in parts of Central America, southern Africa and the Middle East.
?Our estimates suggest that melioidosis is severely under-reported in the 45 countries in which it is known to be endemic and that melioidosis is probably endemic in a further 34 countries that have never reported the disease,? researchers led by Oxford University, the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) in Bangkok and the University of Washington in Seattle wrote in a report.
It was published today in Nature Microbiology.
It is the first time scientists have attempted to map the disease?s global spread using computer modelling based on data from known outbreaks going back to 1910.
The disease, which often affects the rural poor working in fields, is notoriously difficult to diagnose because it mimics many other bacterial infections but only responds to a handful of antibiotics. As a result, misdiagnosis is common.
The mortality rate ? around 70 per cent ? is shockingly high, greater even than the H5N1 bird flu.
Researchers estimated that as many as 89,000 people out of the the 165,000 people who caught melioidosis in 2015 died from the disease.
They noted that annual global deaths from the disease were nearly as high as measles (95,000) and greater than deaths from leptospirosis (50,000) and dengue (12,500) ? ?two current health priorities for many international health organisations?.
READ MORE
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