Laboratory-Acquired Infection with Pseudomonas pseudomallei (Melioidosis)

INFECTION with Pseudomonas pseudomallei acquired in the Western hemisphere is exceedingly rare. Careful questioning of patients with acute or chronic melioidosis will usually reveal a recent or remote history of travel to Asia or, infrequently, South America. Recently, a patient with acute melioidosis, who was a laboratory technician and had not traveled to these areas, was reported to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The circumstances made it likely that this was an example of laboratory-acquired infection. Case Report A previously well 33-year-old man was hospitalized in June 1980 with fever, pleuritic chest pain, a slightly productive cough, and swelling.