John P. Cunha, DO, is a U.S. board-certified Emergency Medicine Physician. Dr. Cunha's educational background includes a BS in Biology from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and a DO from the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences in Kansas City, MO. He completed residency training in Emergency Medicine at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Dr. Shiel received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors from the University of Notre Dame. There he was involved in research in radiation biology and received the Huisking Scholarship. After graduating from St. Louis University School of Medicine, he completed his Internal Medicine residency and Rheumatology fellowship at the University of California, Irvine. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology.
The diagnosis of melioidosis is made with a microscopic evaluation of a blood, urine, sputum, or skin-lesion sample in the laboratory. A blood test is useful to detect early acute cases of melioidosis, but it can not exclude the illness if it is negative.
How is melioidosis treated?
The treatment of melioidosis involves antibiotics and depends on the
location of the disease.
For patients with more mild illness, the CDC recommends antibiotics such as imipenem, penicillin, doxycycline, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, ceftazidime, ticarcillin-clavulanic acid, ceftriaxone, and aztreonam. Patients who are more severely ill are given a combination of two of the above for up to 12 months.
With pulmonary involvement of melioidosis, if cultures remain positive for six months, surgical removal of the lung abscess with lobectomy is considered.
Can melioidosis be prevented?
In counties where melioidosis occurs, people with compromised immune systems (such as AIDS, cancer, those undergoing chemotherapy, etc.) should avoid contact with soil and contaminated water, especially in farm areas.
Pneumonia is inflammation of one or both lungs with consolidation. Pneumonia is frequently but not always due to infection. The infection may be bacterial, viral, fungal or parasitic. Symptoms may include fever, chills, cough with sputum production, chest pain, and shortness of breath.
Bioterrorism is a form of terrorism where there is the intentional release of biological agents such as viruses, germs, or bacteria. Diseases caused by bioterrorism agents include anthrax, botulism, plague, smallpox, tularemia, brucellosis, food poisoning, Q fever, ricin toxin poisoning, cholera, epidemic typhus, viral encephalitis, XDR TB, and MDR TB.
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