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Aerobic Prokaryotes
Published in Volodymyr Ivanov, Environmental Microbiology for Engineers, 2020
There are many pathogens among the abovementioned genera, for example Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Burkholderia cepacia, and Burkholderia pseudomallei. Burkholderia pseudomallei is an agent of melioidosis. This disease is common in Southeast Asia. It affects people exposed to soil and soil aerosols: farmers on rice paddies, construction workers, or people living close to the soil excavation area. The disease may be misidentified as syphilis, typhoid fever, or tuberculosis. Symptoms of pulmonary melioidosis can range from bronchitis to severe pneumonia. During the period from 1989 to 1996, a total of 372 melioidosis cases, with 147 deaths, were reported in Singapore. Therefore, the test of acute toxicity and other pathogenicity tests of all microbial strains, isolated as the active biodegraders of xenobiotics for environmental engineering applications, must be made after selection and before pilot scale research.
Microbiological Hazards
Published in Dag K. Brune, Christer Edling, Occupational Hazards in the Health Professions, 2020
Person-to-person transmission of melioidosis is extremely rare.248 Health care personnel are not at risk when taking care of patients with the disease. However, transmission has been reported to occur in the laboratory during work with cultures of the organism.249,250
Environmental health effects attributed to toxic and infectious agents following hurricanes, cyclones, flash floods and major hydrometeorological events
Published in Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B, 2019
Timothy B. Erickson, Julia Brooks, Eric J. Nilles, Phuong N. Pham, Patrick Vinck
Skin and soft tissue infections induced by Streptococcus, Staphylococcus sp, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) occur frequently after floods (Bandion, Hang, and Norton 2015; Cook 2018b; Tabuchi and Kaplan 2017). Other infectious illnesses, particularly in tropical low-middle income countries, include typhoid, melioidosis, schistosomiasis, viral hepatitis, and arsenicosis (Davies et al. 2014). Typhoid fever related to severe floods was more commonly reported in low and middle-income countries, especially in Asia and Africa (Ahern et al. 2005; Aldermana, Turnera, and Shilu-Tongab 2012). Melioidosis is a serious and potentially fatal infection caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei, which is found in water and soil and is endemic in Southeast Asia and Northern Australia (Dance 2000). The intensity of precipitation is a predictor of melioidosis hospitalizations for pneumonia and septic shock. Schistosomiasis, a leading source globally of hematuria, is spread by contact with water containing parasites from snails (McCreesh and Booth 2013). Flooding in Asia is thought to enhance the risk of schistosomiasis outbreaks by spreading snails to previously unaffected areas (MeCreesh and Booth 2013). Outbreaks of arsenicosis are also related to drinking ground and well water contaminated with environmental arsenic (Davies et al. 2014).