Risk Factors And Causes Of Melioidosis

Melioidosis is a potentially life-threatening disease caused by bacteria and can strike both humans and animals. The disease is not common in the United States, but is a problem in parts of Asia, Australia, and other tropical regions of the world. However, it can spread to other places fairly easily. The symptoms of the disease depend on what organs are infected, and the length between exposure to the bacteria and the first symptoms can range from hours to years. Some individuals with melioidosis are asymptomatic. Others have infections in their blood, their lungs, their skin, or in more than one organ. Get to know the risk factors and causes of melioidosis now.

Bacterium Called Burkholderia Pseudomallei

The cause of melioidosis is a bacterium called Burkholderia pseudomallei. It is gram-negative, which means it does not stain the violet color of gram staining and resists some antibiotics. B. pseudomallei is found in water and soil. It is related to a bacteria that causes a disease called glanders in equines, and the name melioidosis is derived from a Greek word that refers to distemper in asses. The bacterium has two poles, lives in an oxygenated environment, and is rod-shaped and can move on its thanks to flagella, or whip-like appendages. It’s about two to five nanometers long and thrives in somewhat acidic or neutral environments in temperatures around 104 degrees Fahrenheit. When it is grown in a petri dish in a lab, B. pseudomallei appears in wrinkled-looking colonies that have the odor of putrefaction.

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Chronic Renal Disease

Chronic renal disease is a condition that makes an individual susceptible to melioidosis. It is a long-term condition where an individual's kidneys do not work the way they should. Eventually, the kidneys lose their ability to remove waste products from the blood and allow them to be excreted through the urine. Chronic renal disease is more likely to affect babies and young children than adults and is more common in females. One problem with the disease is that at first the symptoms are vague or absent, and it may not be diagnosed until the child is taken to the doctor for another reason. The symptoms that do occur may be nonspecific, such as fatigue, nausea, fever, and stomach pain.

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Liver Disease

Liver disease also puts individuals at risk for melioidosis. One type of this disease is hepatitis, which is an inflammation of the liver. There are several types of hepatitis. Hepatitis A and E are caused by a virus that enters the body through contaminated food or water. Hepatitis B is most often sexually transmitted or transmitted through blood transfusions or sharing dirty needles. Mothers can also pass the infection to their children during childbirth. Type C is spread via intravenous drug use and blood transfusions, and type D occurs with type B. Cirrhosis of the liver is a disease that takes months or years to develop. It happens when the liver is so damaged that scar tissue eventually replaces healthy tissue in the organ. Alcoholism and untreated hepatitis can lead to cirrhosis of the liver.

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Thalassemia

Thalassemia is a blood disorder where the blood cells do not carry as much hemoglobin as they should. There are also not as many blood cells than there usually are, which causes anemia. It is an inherited disease, and there are two main types: alpha and beta. Alpha is less common than beta. It can be mild or severe, and individuals who have the mild form are often asymptomatic. Other symptoms are fatigue, breathlessness, irregular heartbeat, dark urine, blood in the urine, enlarged spleen, and jaundice. Patients who have a severe form of the disorder are treated with blood transfusions and chelation to take away excess iron found in the blood. Other patients benefit from stem cell therapy or bone marrow transplants, while others have surgery to remove their spleen. The spleen is the organ found on the left side of the body that stores and cleans blood.

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Chronic Lung Disease

Individuals with chronic lung disease are at risk for attack by the bacteria that cause melioidosis. Chronic lung diseases include emphysema, asthma, bronchitis, and bronchiectasis. All of these diseases make breathing difficult and make it hard for the patient to clear infections from their respiratory system. In emphysema, the tiny sacs in the lungs called alveoli are damaged and enlarged and do not exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide well. Asthma occurs when the flow of air in and out of the lungs is blocked. This happens when the airways become inflamed, tighten, and produce too much mucus. In bronchitis, the mucous lining of the bronchi, which are airways to the lungs, are inflamed. Chronic bronchitis often occurs with emphysema. In bronchiectasis, the airways are damaged and abnormally wide, which leaves them vulnerable to recurrent infections. Bronchiectasis begins in childhood, but many individuals don't have symptoms until they are grown.