This Germ Can Live Decades In Distilled Water, Kill Humans In 48 Hours
Have you heard of melioidosis?
It’s a disease that strikes fear in those who’ve heard of it.
Doctors in Southeast Asia and Northern Australia know it as a stubborn, potentially deadly infection that causes pneumonia, abscesses and, in the most severe cases, organ failure. Without treatment, it can kill within 48 hours. Military officials worry it could be converted into an agent of terror.
But for decades, melioidosis seems to have lurked under the radar of global public health organizations. “For everybody, it was a disease of southeastern Asia and Australia,” says Dr. Eric Bertherat of the World Health Organization. “But we are discovering that this disease is present in many other regions worldwide.”
Image: Eye of Science
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