Abstract

GONZALEZ R., GINA; MANTILLA D., WILLIAM A.  and  RADA E., ROBIN. PNEUMONÍA AND OSTEOMYELITIS BY Burkholderia pseudomallei: REPORT OF A CLINICAL CASE. rev.fac.med [online]. 2009, vol.17, n.1, pp.146-149. ISSN 0121-5256.

Melioidosis, a disease caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei (B. pseudomallei), has been reported verbally in Colombia. In the Asian Southeastern there are reported endemic centers of this infection, associated to the inhalation of aerosols, or contact with water contaminated by the bacteria. It is manifested clinically like septicemia with pulmonary affectation and formation of multiple abscesses. The case of a previously healthy 22 year old soldier is reported, with an acute picture of cough and expectoration, fever and chills and with progressive pain in the right leg. Signs of systemic inflammatory reaction were demonstrated (SIRS), multilobar pneumonia, and arthritis of the right elbow and osteomyelitis of the ipsilateral tibia, with growth of B. pseudomallei in the cultures of the drainage and in the hemocultures. He was treated with Imipenem (500 mg intravenous every 6 hours) and later with trimethoprim Sulfamethoxazole (160/800 mg oral route every 12 hours), obtaining clinical resolution. This is an official report of a case of melioidosis in Colombian territory and emphasizes the clinical similarity with the cases described in endemic areas, as well as the parallel of the environmental characteristics of those areas with the area from which the patient came, which requires to consider this disease in the differential diagnosis of patients with similar symptomatology to the one reported in this case.

Keywords : melioidosis; Burkholderia pseudomallei; bacterial pneumonia; infectious arthritis; osteomyelitis.

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