A flesh-eating bacteria has just been found by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – CDC when testing many soil and water samples.
Specifically, a flesh-eating bacteria called Burkholderia pseudomallei or B. pseudomallei has just been discovered by the CDC. It causes Whitmore’s disease, which has a high mortality rate.
Bacteria Burkholderia pseudomallei, which can cause melioidosis, a rare but potentially fatal disease
This is also the first time this particular bacteria has been found in the US.
Accordingly, during the investigation of two cases of Whitmore disease in the Gulf Coast, southern Mississippi, experts from the US CDC discovered this flesh-eating bacteria. The two patients above have no details related to each other, even the disease period is more than 2 years apart, the earlier case is 2020.
Experts have collected many soil and water samples around the patient’s living area and many results were positive for B. pseudomallei bacteria.
The US CDC announced:
“We concluded that the source of bacterial infection was from the outside environment, most likely from the water source. They’ve been around since at least 2020 and it’s possible that the number of people infected is even higher.” CDC warns.
CDC also warned people to avoid direct contact with mud, soil and stay away from waters of unknown origin to reduce the risk of infection with this bacteria. At the same time, experts say that people with underlying medical conditions such as obesity, heart disease, pneumonia or other chronic diseases will have a higher risk of bacterial infection, so pay attention.
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Whitmore’s disease caused by B. pseudomallei bacteria will cause the infected person to have symptoms such as fever, joint pain, headache, sore throat, flu, … and manifest after about 3 weeks of infection. CDC advises people when seeing the above symptoms to immediately go to the nearest medical facility for examination and treatment, avoiding subjective disregard for the disease.
This new type of flesh-eating bacteria has not yet infected large numbers with only about 12 cases in a year, but on the contrary, the mortality rate is very high. In 2021, 4 people in 4 different US states contracted flesh-eating bacteria after using a fragrance spray sold at Walmart, 2 out of 4 people did not survive.
In particular, the CDC believes that tropical and subtropical areas such as South and Southeast Asia, Northern Australia, and parts of Central and South America and Puerto Rico will have a higher prevalence of the bacteria, so people who travel Schedules in these areas need special attention.
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