The fourth individual affected by a bacterial outbreak linked to imported aromatherapy room sprays offered at Walmart final yr occurred in a beforehand wholesome 5-year-old boy in Georgia, who died of the an infection. That is based on new info introduced Tuesday on the Worldwide Convention on Rising Infectious Ailments (ICEID), hosted by the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention in Atlanta.
The tragic new particulars of the boy’s instances—introduced by epidemiologist Jessica Pavlick of the Georgia Division of Public Well being—have newfound significance for the US. Within the yr because the boy’s dying, the tropical soil bacterium behind his lethal an infection has been present in environmental samples in southern Mississippi. The bacterium—Burkholderia pseudomallei—is now thought-about endemic to the Gulf Coast area, creating an ever-present risk to folks within the space.
Tragic an infection
For years, CDC researchers have suspected that B. pseudomallei may already be lurking in soil and water within the continental US, quite than being introduced in by way of imported animals and merchandise (just like the room sprays), in addition to vacationers and migrants. In recent times, the US has averaged about 12 instances of B. pseudomallei an infection, which causes a illness known as melioidosis.
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