MELIOIDOSIS IN INDIA - THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG

Diagnosis of melioidosis by the isolation of Burkholderia pseudomallei from one or more body fluid/tissue specimens of 6 Indian subjects, 5 of whom had not travelled outside India, is reported. The places of re sidence of these 6 and One patient previously reported, namely Tripura (2), Kerala (2), Orissa (1), Tamil Nadu (1) and Maharashtra (1) are t herefore potentially endemic for melioidosis. B.pseudomallei closely r esembles common contaminant Pseudomonas sp. and are easily mis-identif ied in microbiology laboratories. We surmise that melioidosis is under diagnosed and underreported in India and eve alert clinicians, microbi ologists and public health professionals to the possibility of melioid osis being far more common than previously recognised.