WASHINGTON, July 28 — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday issued a health advisory to clinicians after discovering the bacteria behind a rare but serious disease for the first time in the continental United States.
The two unrelated people lived in close geographic proximity and became sick with the disease two years apart — in 2020 and in 2022 — prompting health authorities to investigate household products and the environment around their homes. There are about 12 cases in the US per year on average, mostly related to travel to tropical and subtropical regions, where the bacteria is endemic.
Most healthy people who come into contact with the bacteria do not develop melioidosis, but the global death rate for those who do is 10-50 per cent.