Deadly bacteria that kills up to 50% of patients now ENDEMIC to US gulf coast, CDC expert says, just a year after it was first detected in the country

Daily Mail ^ | 6/06/23 | Luke Andrews

[Libloather]

A deadly bacteria that kills up to 50 percent of people it infects has now been listed as endemic along the US gulf coast.

Dr Julia Petras, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who made the warning, said Burkholderia pseudomallei was now likely lurking in soil and stagnant water across the 1,600 miles from Texas to Florida.

People infected with the bacteria suffer melioidosis, a severe condition that can trigger pneumonia and sepsis and can be fatal.

Doctors are now on alert for the disease, which can initially be misdiagnosed as another infection.

The CDC declaration comes less than a year after it was detected in the US for the first time in soil from the Mississippi coast.

Dr Petras said: 'It's estimated that there's probably 160,000 cases a year around the world and 80,000 deaths.

'This is one of those diseases that is also called the great mimicker because it can look like a lot of different things.

'It's greatly under-reported and under-diagnosed and under-recognized - we often like to say that it's been the neglected tropical disease.'

The bacteria - also known as B. psuedomallei - is native to tropical areas in South East Asia and northern Australia.

But the CDC is now warning it has been identified in the gulf states: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

In these areas, the agency warns it may be lurking in topsoil or muddy fresh or brackish water.

People can become infected after coming into contact with the water or soil - including through open wounds - or ingesting it.

It is unclear how the pathogen arrived in the United States, although this may have traveled by infected travelers.

[yldstrk]

bulleffing sheet

[upchuck]

Perhaps another use for Ivermectin?

[null and void]

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

The false positive rate was 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

Quarantine the sick. Protect the vulnerable. Hang the guilty. Free everyone else.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

And a national debt of $40 trillion.

[Jane Long]

Oh, noes!!

Don’t go near the water....

[Gritty]

It is unclear how the pathogen arrived in the United States, although this may have traveled by infected travelers.

I think they misspelled "illegal aliens".

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.

[himno hero]

It can come in as dust as well.

[himno hero]

Whitmore’s disease.

[himno hero]

Break out the doxy

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Some of the soil-born pathogens are deadly. There is one in the woodland soil where Beau hunts for black bear, up North.

We have lost a superb bear dog to a soil-related disease they can get. Botrisis, I think it’s called. Effects the lungs, and once they’re symptomatic, it’s too late.

It’s totally hit or miss and you can’t guard against it, either. :(

[vetvetdoug]

For us old folks it was Pseudomonas psuedomallei or in a more common vernacular, “False glanders”. I saw several cases of it in animals but just first detected in the country? Just call me skeptical. It wasn’t a reportable disease but is highly contagious.

[Ellendra]

Several years ago I had a gardening injury that was infected. I’ll never forget the look on the doctor’s face when he was telling me the results of the culture, and admitted that he’d never even heard of the types of bacteria in my infection!

It took 3 different antibiotics all at once, including Cipro, to knock it out. All because I decided to pull weeds without gloves on.

A little dirt is harmless, until it isn’t. The fact that humans survive at all is a miracle.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"The fact that humans survive at all is a miracle."

Also:

[mewzilla]

https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/9546/melioidosis

“...Melioidosis is a rare disease in the United States, but it is common in tropical or subtropical areas of the world, including Southeast Asia, Africa, and Australia...”

The article at the top of the thread left a bit out, didn’t it...