Merianos A

Patel M

Lane JM

Noonan CN

Sharrock D

Mock PA

Currie BJ

1993-09

From November 1990 to June 1991 33 acute cases of melioidosis occurred in the Northern Territory, Australia; 25 cases were reported in the capital city, Darwin. We carried out an epidemiological investigation to exclude a common source outbreak, describe the risk factors for disease, and develop and institute appropriate control measures. We compared population based attack rates among various risk groups using logistic regression, and the demographic, medical and behavioral risk factors for melioidosis by a matched case-control study. Environmental Health Officers collected soil, surface water and cooling tower water specimens for Pseudomonas pseudomallei culture. The crude attack rate of melioidosis during the outbreak was 52 per 100,000. Age, gender, race, diabetes and alcohol abuse were independent risk factors for disease. The relative risk of disease in diabetic patients was 12.9 (95% CI 5.1-32.7; p < 0.001) and 6.7 in alcoholic patients (95% CI 2.9-15.2; p < 0.001). We found no significant difference between cases and controls in matched pair analysis for any of several exposure factors studied. We isolated Pseudomonas pseudomallei from 4% of soil samples and 9% of surface water samples. Our study confirms the importance of host factors in the development of melioidosis, and attempts to quantify the risk of disease during the Darwin epidemic. Pseudomonas pseudomallei is widespread in the soil of urban Darwin.

National Center for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra Act.

Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health. 1993 Sep;24(3):425-35.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7512752/?otool=iaurydwlib

https://hdl.handle.net/10137/11610

24

Acute Disease

Adult

Aged

Aged, 80 and over

Alcoholism/complications

*Burkholderia pseudomallei

Case-Control Studies

Diabetes Complications

*Disease Outbreaks

Environmental Monitoring

Epidemiological Monitoring

Female

Humans

Incidence

Logistic Models

Male

Matched-Pair Analysis

Melioidosis/*epidemiology/*etiology/microbiology/prevention & control

Middle Aged

Northern Territory/epidemiology

Odds Ratio

*Population Surveillance

Risk Factors

Seasons

*Soil Microbiology

Urban Population

*Water Microbiology

The 1990-1991 outbreak of melioidosis in the Northern Territory of Australia: epidemiology and environmental studies.

Journal Article

Publication