Arizona laboratory staff have been exposed to the deadly bacteria that causes melioidosis, a disease with a 50% fatality rate, according to a recent media journal report.
A previously undisclosed exposure occurred in 2021 at a microbiology lab at Mayo Clinic Arizona in Phoenix. Clinic staff examined a swab sample from a 58-year-old patient.
Three staff were later identified as exposed – and one was singled out as a “high-risk exposure”.
According to a report published within the journal, a high-risk employee “performed an aerosolization procedure outside of a biosafety cabinet” Emerging infectious diseases.
This employee also had a pre-existing condition that will have made him more susceptible to illness.
Bacteria, the so-called Burkholderia pseudomalleiit was only seen in tropical Asia and Australia, but has now spread worldwide to the Gulf region, according to this week’s warning from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
![Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012359067.jpg?w=1024)
Because B. pseudomallei is rare within the US, lab staff had an “initial lack of clinical suspicion” of the bacteria, the report’s authors noted.
Due to its rarity, melioidosis is commonly misdiagnosed as sepsis or one other condition.
“It’s one in all those diseases that is also called the nice imitator because it will possibly appear like so many various things,” Julia Petras, officer of the Epidemic Intelligence Service on the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, told HealthDay News.
“It is very under-reported, under-diagnosed and under-appreciated – we frequently like to say it was a neglected tropical disease,” added Petras.
This makes melioidosis a major concern as early diagnosis is critical in treating the disease.
“Now we have antibiotics that work,” said Petras. “It’s an in depth treatment, but in case you’ve accomplished the total course and diagnosed early, which is basically critical, your final result is probably going to be quite good,” she added.
The times when melioidosis was a rare tropical disease could also be over: B. pseudomallei the bacteria that cause this disease have now been declared endemic (or common) along all the Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas.
![microscopic image of B. pseudomallei bacteria](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012285617.jpg?w=1024)
The CDC made this declaration after reporting several cases of melioidosis in Mississippi. A warming climate is assumed to be a key consider the spread of this and other diseases that were once only present in the tropics.
Symptoms of melioidosis may appear one to 4 weeks after exposure, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Symptoms include a persistent cough that could be bloody, fever, weight reduction, and pain within the stomach, chest, muscles, or joints.
All staff on the Arizona lab were monitored for several weeks and none tested positive for melioidosis. However the authors of the report noted: “US laboratories should remain vigilant and aware of growth characteristics B. pseudomallei to help avoid occupational exposure.
Other exposed people weren’t as lucky because the laboratory staff: in 2021, 4 people were infected B. pseudomallei which was contained in an aromatherapy spray sold by Walmart.
One in all the adult patients died and the opposite adult patient survived but remained with serious health problems, according to case studies published within the Recent England Journal of Medicine.
Two children were also treated for melioidosis: a 4-year-old girl survived but was confined to a wheelchair and will not speak, and a 5-year-old boy eventually died.