Melioidosis; a treatment challenge.

Ceftazidime has reduced the mortality of severe disease by half, but melioidosis remains a difficult and expensive infection to treat. Empirical treatment of septicemia with aminoglycosides combined with penicillin, ampicillin, or second-generation cephalosporins is ineffective. The response to appropriate antibiotic treatment is slow, and most patients require a minimum of 2 weeks of high-dose parenteral treatment. Large abscesses should be drained if possible. Ceftazidime remains the drug of choice, but co-amoxyclav is an effective alternative (although treatment failure rates are slightly higher), and preliminary experience with imipenem is encouraging. The relapse rate following 8 weeks of treatment is approximately 28%, and this is reduced to 9% with 20 weeks of treatment. The relapse rate is determined by the extent of the infection and not the underlying predisposing condition. Resistance to all treatment antimicrobials has been documented, but this has not proved a major problem to date. Patients who survive the acute phase of melioidosis require life-long follow-up.