[A case of melioidosis in a Japanese soldier in Malaya].

I was consulted by a soldier in November, 1943, who was admitted in our Military Hospital Sungei Patani, Kedah, in Malaya. His chief complaints were an eczematous ulcer and phlegmon in his left thigh with high temperature and slight jaundice. He looked to be in a critical condition. Finally he proved fatal in general prostration on the 9th day from the onset of the disease. Whilst giving him treatment, I isolated a strain of bacteria from his blood and have carried out bacteriological tests on it. From my experiments, I concluded that it was a case of melioidosis, the disease which is often reported in Malaya and Burma. Whitmore and Krishnaswamy first isolated pf eifferella mallei-like bacteria from a lunatic in Rangoon, 1912. In the following year, in Rangoon General Hospital, the same strain of bacteria was isolated from another patient. Whitmore called the disease as •gglander-like disease•h. He named the bacteria•gBacteria pseudomallei•h or •gRangoon Bacillus•h. Stanton and Fletcher, at the Fourth conference of the Far Eastern Association of Tropical Medicine, reported this disease and gave it the name •gmelioidosis•h and called the pathogen as •gB. whitmore.•h Melioidosis in south-eastern Asia has blamed 38 victims in Burma, 39 in Malaya, 8 in Indo-China, 1 in Ceylon, 1 in Java and 1 in Celebes, making a total of 88 cases. Mortality was 97.8%. They reported that, at the hospital in Kuala Lunpur, 14 cases out of 3,068 autopsied indicated the presence of melioidosis. The clinical symptoms of this disease vary widely, so that, the diagnosis is difficult. Where a bacterial examination cannot be conducted, any decisive diagnosis is not available.