What is melioidosis?

Melioidosis is a disease caused by a bacterium called burkholderia pseudomallei. Melioidosis can be life-threatening. If you have melioidosis, you must get medical help quickly.

The types of infections that you may experience if you get melioidosis include skin infections, pneumonia and blood infections.

The bacterium that causes melioidosis is found around the world in warm and humid areas. In Australia, this includes the Top End of the Northern Territory, North Queensland and the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Melioidosis has also been found as far as south-west Western Australia and the Brisbane River Valley in Queensland.

You are more likely to get sick with melioidosis during the wet season (October to April).

You are at greater risk of getting sick with melioidosis if you:

• have diabetes
• drink lots of alcohol
• have kidney disease or kidney stones
• have lung disease
• take medicines that affect your immune system
• have cancer
• are more likely to be exposed to soil and water in areas containing the bacterium — this includes agriculture and construction workers, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people and ecotourists

What are the symptoms of melioidosis?

The first sign of melioidosis is usually pneumonia, a chest infection. But melioidosis can affect different parts of your body, including your lungs, skin, spleen, liver, kidneys, brain and heart.

If you don’t get medical treatment quickly, you can get sepsis and other severe illnesses. A person may even die if they don’t act fast.

Symptoms you may experience include:

• fever
• weight loss
• difficulty breathing
• cough with mucous
• non-healing skin sores
• joint pain or swelling
• confusion or headache
• difficulty passing urine (in males)

What causes melioidosis?

Melioidosis is caused by a bacterium called burkholderia pseudomallei. You can get melioidosis if:

• the bacterium enters your body through broken skin
• you breathe in the bacterium from contaminated soil or water droplets
• you swallow unchlorinated water containing the bacterium, but this only occurs in some areas

There are other ways you can get infected, such as from breast milk and sexual intercourse, but these ways are rare.

When should I see my doctor?

Melioidosis is a life-threatening illness. If you have any of the symptoms of melioidosis, you should seek medical help quickly.

You will usually experience symptoms around 9 days after coming into contact with the bacterium, but it can take up to 3 weeks. You can experience symptoms years later, but this is rare.

How is melioidosis diagnosed?

Your healthcare team will order a blood test and take swabs or samples from you. These will be sent to a laboratory to find out if you have the bacterium that causes melioidosis.

Melioidosis can be hard to diagnose because it has a wide variety of symptoms that can look similar to infections caused by other bacteria. Awareness of the disease is also limited.

How is melioidosis treated?

If you have melioidosis, you will usually need to receive high doses of antibiotics for at least 2 weeks while in hospital. If you get infections, such as bone, joint or brain infections, you will need 1 to 2 months of antibiotics while in hospital.

After being treated in hospital, you will usually need to take antibiotics for another 3 to 6 months at home.

Can melioidosis be prevented?

Melioidosis can be prevented by:

• washing your cuts or wounds with soap and clean water
• covering your cuts or sores when you are outside
• wearing waterproof shoes in the mud
• wearing rubber gloves when you touch soil
• wearing a mask when you use a high-pressure hose
• drinking less alcohol

If you have pre-existing medical conditions, you should be extra careful and:

• stay indoors during storms or heavy wind and rain
• make sure your drinking and bathing water is clean
• disinfect bore water, or use rainwater and bottled water for drinking and showering
• boil water if you are not sure if the water is clean

Complications of melioidosis

Melioidosis can cause serious consequences, including:

• organ infections
• sepsis
• sometimes death

Resources and support

For more information on melioidosis, visit Queensland Health and Northern Territory Government websites.

You can also call the healthdirect helpline on 1800 022 222 (known as NURSE-ON-CALL in Victoria). A registered nurse is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Other languages

View information sheets available in several languages other than English.

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