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Petri dishes containing large colonies of the Gram-negative bacteria Burkholderia pseudomallei seen in the CDC leaflet. Photo/CDC/Dr Todd Parker/Audra Marsh
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned the bacteria could cause serious illness after many people were sickened by the bacteria.
The CDC said they saw the bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei “for the first time in the environment in the continental United States” in a recent health alert.
“The strain is responsible for the rare disease melioidosis, also known as Whitmore’s disease,” the CDC said in a statement.
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“The bacteria were identified through sampling of soil and water environments in the southern Mississippi Gulf Coast region during the investigation of two cases of human melioidosis,” the agency said.
The CDC added that while they had detected one case of the disease in early July 2020, they only confirmed the presence of local bacteria last month.
“Although the cases were years apart, genome sequencing revealed two melioidosis patients had been infected by the same new strain from the Western Hemisphere, which differed from previously known isolates,” the CDC said.
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Both were eventually hospitalized for sepsis and pneumonia, but recovered after antibiotic treatment.
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