摘要：Paediatric melioidosis is uncommon in Northern Australia. In the Northern Territory, children withmelioidosis often report an inoculation event and localised skin and soft tissue infections predominate.However, in Far North Queensland, children with melioidosis are frequently bacteraemic andhave a high case fatality rate. To confirm this observation, all culture-confirmed cases of Burkholderiapseudomallei processed at Cairns Hospital between 1998 and March 2017 were reviewed. During thestudy period, B. pseudomallei was isolated from 223 people; ten (4%) were children (aged from threedays to 14 years). Bacteraemia occurred in 6/10 (60%) children compared with 161/213 (76%) adults(p=0.24). The primary diagnosis was localised, cutaneous disease in three children, meningoencephalitisin two and pneumonia in two. Three had bacteraemia with no primary source evident. No childhad a parotid abscess or liver abscess. Five children (50%) died, and all of whom were bacteraemic.
