Melioidosis is a bacterial disease caused by a bacterium called Burkholderia pseudomallei. The bacterium is found in the soil in tropical areas including southeast Asia, north Queensland, the Northern Territory and the Torres Strait, and becomes exposed during rain periods. 1 in 5 cases of melioidosis end in death in Australia alone, and current tests are only accurate 50% of the time and take days to perform. We have developed a new test to detect melioidosis days faster and much more accurately than current methods, and need your support to make this test viable for global use!


(Image: CDC Yellow Book)

Melioidosis infection usually happens through cuts or abrasions, or inhaling soil particles and water droplets. Most cases of melioidosis occur within several days to three weeks following exposure and are called acute melioidosis. This form of melioidosis is very severe with mortality rates of approximately 20% in Australia even with hospital treatment. In northern Thailand the mortality rate is 40%. Melioidosis can hide within the body and take months-years to show any symptoms. There is no vaccine for melioidosis and the bacterium which causes the disease is resistant to many antibiotics.

The Problem
Melioidosis is usually diagnosed by growing the bacteria from samples of blood, sputum, urine or swabs from ulcers or abscesses. The problem with this method is that it can take three to four days to get a result, potentially delaying correct antibiotic therapy, and it only works 50% of the time. As acute infections are often very serious, this delay could lead to the patient’s death. Unfortunately, new tests that have been developed also often fail to diagnose all patients at early stages, either because antibody levels are too low to pick up or the patient has an uncommon strain of melioidosis.



Our Solution
We have developed a new test for melioidosis that is capable of detecting antibodies in patients that were previously missed by the existing test. In a recent study we found we could detect antibodies in all of a group of patients that were unable to be diagnosed with the existing test (see our papers below). Our new test only takes three hours to perform in its current form. This is a big improvement; however a "rapid" test would be less expensive and could be performed at a patient’s bedside (not in a lab).This would also be beneficial for poorer countries with less technology access, saving many lives from acute melioidosis. With your help, we can convert our test into a rapid test (like a pregnancy test), that would be able to be performed in under 20 minutes by doctors at the bedside across the world!

We are looking to raise $20,000 to convert our current test into a rapid test format. The money will be spent on costs associated with:
·Components of the rapid test kits including plastic cases, special test strips and pads for the internals of the rapid test
·Reagents for displaying the coloured line in the rapid test format
·Producing the bacterial extracts that melioidosis patients’ antibodies will react to
·Developing the test and validating that it works using real patient samples