Newly detected paediatric melioidosis cases in a single referral children's hospital in Ho Chi Minh City indicate the probable underrecognition of melioidosis in South Vietnam.

BACKGROUND: The epidemiology of melioidosis in Vietnam, a disease caused by the soil bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei, remains unclear. This study aimed to detect paediatric melioidosis in South Vietnam and describe clinical features and the geographic distribution. METHODS: We introduced a simple laboratory algorithm for detecting B. pseudomallei from clinical samples at Children's Hospital 2 in Ho Chi Minh City in July 2015. A retrospective observational study of children <16 y of age with culture-confirmed melioidosis between July 2015 and August 2019 was undertaken. RESULTS: Thirty-five paediatric cases of melioidosis were detected, with cases originating from 13 of 32 provinces and cities in South Vietnam. The number of paediatric melioidosis cases detected from a certain region correlated with the overall number of inpatients originating from the respective geographic area. Suppurative parotitis (n=15 [42.8%]) was the most common clinical presentation, followed by lung infection (n=10 [28.6%]) and septicaemia (n=7 [20%]). Fourteen (40%) children had disseminated disease, including all cases of lung infection, four cases with central nervous system symptoms and four (11.4%) deaths. CONCLUSIONS: The patients' origin indicates a wide distribution of melioidosis in South Vietnam. It seems probable that cases not only in children, but also in adults, remain grossly undiagnosed. Further awareness raising and laboratory capacity strengthening are needed in this part of the country.

Chitinophaga vietnamensis sp. nov., a multi-drug resistant bacterium infecting humans.

We describe a new multidrug resistant Chitinophaga species that was isolated from patients with type 2 diabetes in Vietnam. Strain BD 01T was cultivated in 2017 from a blood sample of a patient suffering from bacteremia. Strain VP 7442 was isolated in 2018 from a pleural fluid sample of a patient who had presented with lung abscess and pleural effusion. Both strains are aerobic, Gram-negative, non-motile and non-spore-forming. The 16S rRNA gene sequences of both strains are 100 % similar and share a highest 16S sequence identity with Chitinophaga polysaccharea MRP-15T of 97.42 %. Their predominant fatty acid is iso-C15 : 0 (73.8 % for strain BD 01T and 79.8 % for strain VP 7442). The draft genome sizes of strains BD 01T and VP 7442 are 6 308 408 and 6 308 579 bp, respectively. They are resistant to beta-lactams, aminoglycosides, fluoroquinolones, metronidazole, fosfomycin, vancomycin and macrolides, and exhibit 20 and 18 antimicrobial resistance-related genes, respectively. Using the multiphasic taxonogenomic approach, we propose that strains BD 01T (=CSUR P9622=VTCC 70981) and VP 7442 (=CSUR P9623=VTCC 70982) represent a new species, for which we propose the name Chitinophaga vietnamensis sp. nov. Strain BD 01T was chosen as type strain of C. vietnamensis sp. nov.