Acute septicemic melioidosis presenting with acute cholangitis

Melioidosis is a disease prevalent in the tropics, especially in Southeast Asia. The most common clinical presentations are bacteremic pneumonia and abscess formation in various organs. Although a wide variety of disease presentations are reported for melioidosis, acute cholangitis has not been previously reported. Herein, we report a 54-year-old woman who had fever, right upper abdominal pain and jaundice 1 week after a flood caused by a typhoon in southern Taiwan. Acute cholangitis and pneumonia with septic shock caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei were subsequently diagnosed.