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

• Published in: Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical
• Main Authors: Rafael Nogueira Macedo, Felipe Araujo Rocha, Dionne Bezerra Rolim, Dina Cortez Lima Feitosa Vilar, Fernanda Montenegro de Carvalho Araújo, Nélia Nogueira Vieira, Juliana Rodrigues Teixeira, Maíza Colares Carvalho, Francisco George Magalhães Oliveira, Luciano Pamplona de Góes Cavalcanti
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical (SBMT) 2012
• Subjects: Melioidose; Dengue; Coinfecção; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0037-86822012000100028; https://doaj.org/article/0d6473b03bd24cffac6294fa47035ed0

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.