Deadly spread of the tropical disease melioidosis

The dangerous tropical disease "melioidosis" is for most people in this country so far no term. That could change soon. Because scientists warn against the spread of the disease, also known as "pseudorotz". As the group of experts reported in the journal "Nature Microbiology", nearly as many people worldwide would die from infectious disease nowadays as they would from measles.

Serious infectious disease often ends fatally
Melioidosis (also called "pseudo-snot" or "Whitmore's Disease") is a serious infectious disease caused by the Burkholderia pseudomallei pathogen. The symptoms of the disease are varied and can vary greatly depending on the route of infection. In addition, a diagnosis is often difficult, because the symptoms can be quickly mistaken for a cold. Typical symptoms include fever and changes in the lung tissue and in acute cases lung abscesses, pneumonia and pleural effusions. If the pathogens spread through the bloodstream throughout the body ("systemic infection"), damage to the spleen and liver and, in the worst case, death threatens.

Melioidosis often first appears in the lungs. Due to nonspecific symptoms, however, the disease is often not recognized. (Image: Nonwarit / fotolia.com)

Almost as many deaths as measles
The infection occurs through contaminated soil or water containing erosion (Geonose), from where the pathogens enter the body via small skin injuries. In addition, the disease also affects a variety of animal species such as rodents, horses, birds and cattle, through which the virus can be transmitted to humans. Melioidosis occurs predominantly in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, etc.) and northern Australia, but apparently it is spreading more and more around the world. Because like the research team around Dr. med. According to Dirk Limmathurotsakul of the University of Oxford in the journal Nature Microbiology, nearly 90,000 people worldwide would die from melioidosis each year. Thus, the number is comparable to the global measles mortality (95,600 deaths per year) and even higher than, for example, in the infectious disease leptospirosis (50,000 victims).

Dark figure probably much higher
According to the researchers, the treatment with drugs is unsuccessful in most cases, as the causative soil bacterium "Burkholderia pseudomallei" is resistant to a variety of common antibiotics. In addition, there is currently no licensed vaccine available for melioidosis, which currently accounts for more than 70% mortality. According to experts, 165,000 people develop melioidosis each year, and the number of unreported cases is likely to be even higher in the 45 countries with reported illnesses. In addition, the disease is likely to be prevalent in 34 other countries where no cases have been reported so far. In Germany, melioidosis is not notifiable, but even here, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) already isolated cases have become known.

"This broad and potentially increasing geographic spread and burden, combined with high mortality rates - especially if melioidosis is undiagnosed and patients treated with ineffective antimicrobials - underline the need for health care officials and policy makers to face higher disease rates Priority ", say the researchers in the magazine" Nature Microbiology ". (No)