Four EPI researchers have contributed to the discovery of two molecules shown to be effective at curbing Gram-negative Burkholderia bacterial infections, which cause the highly lethal tropical disease melioidosis in humans and animals.
EPI members, including director Glenn Morris, identified Madariaga virus for the first time in Haitian children in 2015-2016. Prior to their work, this emerging infectious agent had been found mostly in animals of South and Central America, with the first human outbreak occurring in Panama in 2010.
B. pseudomallei possess intrinsic antibiotic resistance, do not always acquire resistance genes from other bacteria via usual route.
