Severe coinfection of melioidosis and dengue fever in northeastern Brazil: first case report

this report focuses on a fatality involving severe dengue fever and melioidosis in a 28-year-old truck driver residing in pacoti in northeastern brazil. he exhibited long-term respiratory symptoms (48 days) and went through a wide-ranging clinical investigation at three hospitals, after initial clinical diagnoses of pneumonia, visceral leishmaniasis, tuberculosis, and fungal sepsis. after death, burkholderia pseudomallei was isolated in a culture of ascitic fluid. dengue virus type 1 was detected by polymerase chain reaction in cerebrospinal fluid (csf); this infection was the cause of death. this description reinforces the need to consider melioidosis among the reported differential diagnoses of community-acquired infections where both melioidosis and dengue fever are endemic.