An unexpectedly potentially lethal bacterium has been found in soil contents in the United States (US) for the first time. This finding has been associated with at least two cases of the disease.
This prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to issue a warning to the public. The CDC's Health Alert Network has warned that the bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei has been identified in soil and water samples taken from southern Mississippi.
The two cases, diagnosed with infections in July 2020 and May 2022, are unrelated but live fairly close to each other in the Gulf Coast region of southern Mississippi.
As part of the investigation into the patient, bacteria were found in soil samples taken in June 2022 from the property and local area of the two patients.
"It's not clear how long the bacteria were in the environment before 2020 or how widespread they were in the continental United States," the CDC said.
Also, it's uncertain how the bacteria arrived in Mississippi. But genomic sequencing revealed both patients were infected by the same strain of bacteria from the Western Hemisphere region.
B. pseudomallei can cause a rare and serious disease called melioidosis, also known as Whitmore's disease. People can get melioidosis through contact with contaminated soil and water.
This includes drinking contaminated water or eating food that has been in contact with contaminated soil. Person-to-person transmission is extremely rare, but so far unheard of.
There are several types of melioidosis depending on where the infection is taking place, each with its own symptoms. Due to the somewhat vague nature of the symptoms, they can often be mistaken for other diseases, such as tuberculosis or the more common forms of pneumonia.
Local infection will usually involve pain, swelling, fever, skin ulceration, or abscess. The disease can also affect the respiratory system, causing coughing, chest pain, high fever, and headaches.
If the infection enters the bloodstream, the patient will experience fever, headache, joint pain, abdominal pain, disorientation, and respiratory problems. Eventually, a febrile infection spreads, resulting in fever, weight loss, abdominal or chest pain, joint pain, headache, and seizures.
The US has seen outbreaks of this infection before. About 12 cases of melioidosis are reported in the US each year, most of them occurring in people who have recently traveled to a country where the bacteria is endemic.
Just last year, the CDC confirmed four cases of melioidosis-related in patients from Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota, and Texas, including two deaths. It turns out that this strange outbreak was triggered by imported lavender and chamomile aromatherapy sprays sold at Walmart.
However, this is the first time the bacteria have been detected in the natural environment of the US mainland. These bacteria are commonly found in tropical and subtropical climates around the world, including South and Southeast Asia, northern Australia, parts of Central and South America, the US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.
Unfortunately, now this bacteria has found its way to the mainland US soil. The CDC said this was a sign that US public health agencies needed to prepare.
"Once established in the soil, B. pseudomallei is unlikely to be removed from the soil," the CDC says.
"Public health efforts should focus primarily on improving case identification so that appropriate treatment can be provided. Melioidosis is now a Nationally Notifiable Disease after a favorable vote at the 2022 [State and Territory Council of Epidemiology] conference which should improve domestic surveillance and health response society," he added.