ArticleThe American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene2024
Melioidosis and Activation from Latency: The "Time Bomb" Has Not Occurred.
Article in The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Virulence of Burkholderia pseudomallei Strains from Western Hemisphere and Africa in Mice.Emerging infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Dry Season Melioidosis in the Tropical North of Australia.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Development and international multicenter evaluation of a second-generation immunochromatography test for the serological diagnosis of melioidosis.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Article
- Epidemiology, Clinical Features, and Outcomes of Chronic Melioidosis in the Top End of Australia's Northern Territory, 1989-2023.Open forum infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Environmental Presence of Burkholderia pseudomallei at Military Sites in an Endemic Region: Implications for Future Deployments and Studies.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2026Article
- Article
- An outer membrane vesicle vaccine prevents lung pathology in a macaque model of pneumonic melioidosis.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Genotype characteristics of two non traveler sources burkholderia pseudomallei strains isolated from clinical patients for the first time in Chongqing, China.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Related Melioidosis Cases with Unknown Exposure Source, Georgia, USA, 1983-2024.Emerging infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Clinical Implications of High Melioidosis Serology Indirect Haemagglutination Assay Titre: A 20-Year Retrospective Study from the Top End of the Northern Territory, Australia.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Is Respiratory Viral Infection an Inciting Event in the Development of Melioidosis? A Systematic Evaluation of Co-infection WithOpen forum infectious diseases · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Burkholderia pseudomallei, the causative agent of melioidosis has long been considered able to exist in a latent form. Seropositivity among U.S. soldiers returning from the Vietnam conflict led to melioidosis being dubbed "the Vietnamese time bomb." Cases assigned to "(re)activation from latency" over 30 years of the Darwin Prospective Melioidosis Study (DPMS) were reviewed and reassessed and additional cases from DPMS years 31-34 were added. Historical reports of melioidosis attributed to activation from latency were reviewed. Some earlier DPMS cases and most historical cases described as activation from latency more accurately reflect undiagnosed chronic melioidosis, often with relapsing-remitting courses, rather than truly latent, asymptomatic infection. Such protracted disease should now be diagnosable much earlier, provided melioidosis is considered and laboratory facilities are available. The longest plausible duration of asymptomatic latency remains 29 years. In conclusion, activation from latency is a rare event in melioidosis, accounting in our analysis for under 3% of DPMS cases, consistent with why the Vietnamese time bomb never eventuated.
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