A workshop on Melioidosis awareness, diagnostics and research was jointly organised by Microbiology Department, AIIMS Bhubaneswar and the KMC Manipal as part of the Pre-Conference Workshop series of 45th Annual Conference of Medical Microbiologists (MICROCON-2022) here.

Melioidosis has baffled medical community in having myriad manifestations presenting acutely with high fever, pneumonia, visceral abscesses culminating in life threatening sepsis to indolent presentations of persistent low-grade fever, lymphadenitis and thus has earned a moniker of “great mimicker”, informed Dr Bijayini Behera, Additional Professor, Department of Microbiology, AIIMS Bhubaneswar.

Patients with poorly controlled diabetes, hazardous level of alcohol consumption, and exposure to rice paddy fields remain at highest risk of getting the disease. Urban dwelling people with minimum levels of soil exposure like gardening can also get the disease, opined Dr Rashmiranjan Mohanty, Additional Professor General Medicine, AIIMS, Bhubaneswar.

Widespread construction activities and Norwester wind (Kalabaisakhi) are also associated environmental factors of acquiring the disease by inhalation routes, he added. 

The disease, without an accurate diagnosis and treatment, can be fatal in more than half of the cases, said Prof PR Mohapatra, DEAN-Head Pulmonary Medicine.

Dr Prakash Sasmal, Additional Professor, General Surgery Department sharing his experience said that over the last one decade more than two hundred cases of Melioidosis have been found at AIIMS, Bhubaneswar with more than half of the cases from Khordha district.