Susanna Dunachie: Searching for a vaccine for melioidosis
Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, University of Oxford Melioidosis is a neglected tropical disease caused by the soil-dwelling bacteria Burkholderia pseudomallei. Patients present with a range of clinical syndromes including pneumonia, sepsis and abscesses, and the in-hospital mortality is 40% in Thailand. Melioidosis is endemic in Southeast Asia and Northern Australia but it is widespread across the tropics and a recent estimate puts the annual global death toll at 89,000 which is higher than Dengue.