Assessing the national antibiotic surveillance data to identify burden for melioidosis in Malaysia

Revathy Arushothy; Mohammad Ridhuan Mohd Ali; Hana Farizah Zambri; Vickneshwaran Muthu; Rohaidah Hashim; Sylvia Chieng; Sheila Nathan

doi:10.1016/j.ijregi.2023.11.014

Assessing the national antibiotic surveillance data to identify burden for melioidosis in Malaysia

IJID Reg. 2023 Nov 30:10:94-99. doi: 10.1016/j.ijregi.2023.11.014. eCollection 2024 Mar.

Authors

Revathy Arushothy^{1

2}, Mohammad Ridhuan Mohd Ali¹, Hana Farizah Zambri¹, Vickneshwaran Muthu³, Rohaidah Hashim¹, Sylvia Chieng², Sheila Nathan²

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Medical Research, National Institutes of Health, Shah Alam, Malaysia.
² Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia.
³ Disease Control Division, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Federal Government Administrative Centre, Putrajaya, Malaysia.

Abstract

Objectives: A leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Southeast Asia, the epidemiological data on melioidosis disease occurrence and mortality in Malaysia is not comprehensive. The aim of this study is to determine the burden of melioidosis and assess the National Surveillance for Antibiotic Resistance (NSAR) data as a potential tool melioidosis surveilance in Malaysia.

Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis on the B. pseudomallei reposited data submitted to the NSAR network between January 2014 and December 2020. The data were screened for information on patient demographics and specimen types. Additional patient comorbidities and outcomes were drawn from parallel surveillance for bacteremic melioidosis.

Results: The average annual incidence rate of melioidosis between 2014-2020 was 3.41 per 100,000 population and was significantly different between states (P <0.001). The highest incidence was observed in Pahang at 11.33 per 100,000 population. Individuals of Malay ethnicity, from the states of Pahang, Johor, Perak, and Negeri Sembilan aged 40-49, who were diabetic and working in agriculture-related sectors had a higher risk of succumbing to the infection.

Conclusion: Assessing the NSAR data proved to be a useful tool for the determination of the incidence and socio-demographic risk factors attributed to melioidosis in Malaysia.

Keywords: B. pseudomallei; Malaysia; Melioidosis; National surveillance for antibiotic resistance.