Tragic new details about American child who died of tropical bacteria in room spray

Enlarge / Burkholderia pseudomallei< grown on sheep blood agar for 24 hours. B. pseudomallei is an aerobic Gram-negative bacterium, and it is the causative agent of melioidosis. Getty | CDC/Courtesy of Larry Stauffer, Oregon State Public Health Laboratory

The fourth person to be affected by a bacterial outbreak linked to imported aromatherapy room sprays sold at Walmart last year occurred in a previously healthy 5-year-old boy in Georgia, who died from the infection. That's according to new information presented Tuesday at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases (ICEID), hosted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

The tragic new details of the boy's cases - presented by epidemiologist Jessica Pavlick of the Georgia Department of Public Health - have new meaning for the United States. Within a year of the boy's death, the tropical soil bacterium that caused his deadly infection was discovered in environmental samples from southern Mississippi. The bacterium—Burkholderia pseudomallei—is now considered endemic to the Gulf Coast region, creating an ever-present threat to residents of the region. tragic infection

For years, CDC researchers have suspected that B. pseudomallei may already be hiding in soil and water on the continental United States, rather than being introduced via animals and imported products (like room sprays), as well as travelers and migrants . In recent years, the United States has averaged about 12 cases of B. pseudomallei, which causes a condition called melioidosis.

Most cases are travel-related, but not all, leading CDC researchers to speculate that B. pseudomallei had become a permanent resident rather than an occasional intruder. It wasn't until an unexplained case in southern Mississippi in 2022 — which happened within miles of another mystery 2020 case — that investigators finally caught B. pseudomallei in US environmental samples.

Although cases of melioidosis are rare even in places where B. pseudomallei is the most common, especially in Southeast Asia and northern Australia. When they do occur, they can be difficult to diagnose and treat, and can easily become fatal. Knowledge of the disease and rapid diagnosis are essential. Unfortunately, that was not the case for the 5-year-old in Georgia.

The boy fell ill in July 2021. At that time, the CDC had already issued a nationwide alert on June 30 regarding three more cases of melioidosis in three other states: Kansas, Minnesota, and Texas. Despite scattered cases, genetic analyzes of B. pseudomallei indicated that they were all related and that the strain traced back to those found in India and Sri Lanka.

The first case occurred in March 2021 in a Kansas adult who died from the infection. The other two cases occurred in May: an adult from Minnesota who survived and a 4-year-old girl from Texas who suffered brain damage. Although state and CDC investigators knew the cases were linked and that an imported product or animal was likely to blame, they had yet to find a common source. According to Pavlick's presentation on Tuesday, the boys' tragic deaths in Georgia would reveal the answer.

Pavlick exposed the case of the boy and the consequences. On July 7, a week after the CDC's melioidosis alert, the boy began feeling ill with fever, weakness, sore throat, nausea, and vomiting. Pavlick noted that he had no underlying health conditions and was previously considered healthy. On July 12, the boy was ...