TY - JOUR
T1 - A call to action
T2 - time to recognise melioidosis as a neglected tropical disease
AU - Savelkoel, Jelmer
AU - Dance, David A. B.
AU - Currie, Bart J.
AU - Limmathurotsakul, Direk
AU - Wiersinga, W. Joost
N1 - Funding Information: We thank the whole melioidosis community, embodied in the International Melioidosis Network, for all the friendship, collegiality, and continued support. We give special thanks to Emma Birnie for carefully reading the manuscript. This work was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (VIDI grant number 91716475 to WJW). The work of DABD and DL on melioidosis was funded in part by the Wellcome Trust (grant number 106698/Z/14/Z) and of BJC was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council grant numbers 1098337 and 1131932 (the HOT NORTH initiative). The Biological Threat Reduction Program has supported the organisation of a Melioidosis Threat Reduction Network for melioidosis in southeast Asia (grant number HDTRA1-16-C-0017). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2022/6/1
Y1 - 2022/6/1
N2 - Melioidosis is a tropical infection caused by the soil bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei. Despite the substantial impact of this often overlooked pathogen on both the health-care systems and economies of numerous low-income and middle-income countries around the world, melioidosis is not officially classified as a neglected tropical disease (NTD) by WHO. Melioidosis causes a higher estimated disease burden and mortality than many other recognised NTDs, with deaths primarily occurring among rural poor populations in low-income and middle-income countries. Fortunately, the impact of melioidosis in a region can be reduced once awareness is established of its known or suspected endemicity. In this Personal View, we provide evidence in support of official recognition of melioidosis as an NTD. We urge member states to request that WHO revisit their NTD list and appeal to government and philanthropic organisations to establish programmes in endemic countries to control melioidosis in order to reduce its global health burden.
AB - Melioidosis is a tropical infection caused by the soil bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei. Despite the substantial impact of this often overlooked pathogen on both the health-care systems and economies of numerous low-income and middle-income countries around the world, melioidosis is not officially classified as a neglected tropical disease (NTD) by WHO. Melioidosis causes a higher estimated disease burden and mortality than many other recognised NTDs, with deaths primarily occurring among rural poor populations in low-income and middle-income countries. Fortunately, the impact of melioidosis in a region can be reduced once awareness is established of its known or suspected endemicity. In this Personal View, we provide evidence in support of official recognition of melioidosis as an NTD. We urge member states to request that WHO revisit their NTD list and appeal to government and philanthropic organisations to establish programmes in endemic countries to control melioidosis in order to reduce its global health burden.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85129706322&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00394-7
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00394-7
M3 - Review article
C2 - 34953519
SN - 1473-3099
VL - 22
SP - e176-e182
JO - Lancet infectious diseases
JF - Lancet infectious diseases
IS - 6
ER -