Severe coinfection of melioidosis and dengue fever in Northeastern Brazil: first case report

Rev Soc Bras Med Trop. 2012 Feb;45(1):132-3. doi: 10.1590/s0037-86822012000100028.

Abstract

This report focuses on a fatality involving severe dengue fever and melioidosis in a 28-year-old truck driver residing in Pacoti in northeastern Brazil. He exhibited long-term respiratory symptoms (48 days) and went through a wide-ranging clinical investigation at three hospitals, after initial clinical diagnoses of pneumonia, visceral leishmaniasis, tuberculosis, and fungal sepsis. After death, Burkholderia pseudomallei was isolated in a culture of ascitic fluid. Dengue virus type 1 was detected by polymerase chain reaction in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF); this infection was the cause of death. This description reinforces the need to consider melioidosis among the reported differential diagnoses of community-acquired infections where both melioidosis and dengue fever are endemic.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Burkholderia pseudomallei / isolation & purification
  • Coinfection / diagnosis*
  • Coinfection / microbiology
  • Coinfection / virology
  • Dengue / complications
  • Dengue / diagnosis*
  • Dengue Virus / isolation & purification
  • Diagnosis, Differential
  • Fatal Outcome
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Melioidosis / complications
  • Melioidosis / diagnosis*