Establishment of a Reference Clinical Sample Panel Allowing for the Development and Proof-of-concept Validation of an In-vitro Diagnostic Test for the Diagnosis of Melioidosis

Study will be proposed to all patients at Sihanouk Hospital Centre of HOPE (SHCH) and HOPE Community Medical Center (CMC) presenting with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS).

Blood samples will be collected upon admission for patients with blood culture request as part of routine patient care and agreement on informed consent. A second sample will be collected in patients with blood culture proven melioidosis or suspicion of melioidosis (only for phase B), at day 5 after initiation of appropriate antibiotic treatment. Depending on the final diagnosis, a subset of patients will be assigned to 3 groups:

1. Patients for whom blood cultures grew Burkholderia pseudomallei
2. Patients for whom blood cultures did not grow a pathogen, but have other body site grown with Burkholderia pseudomallei, or are suspected of melioidosis
3. Patients for whom blood cultures grew with another pathogen

In phase A only, at least 20 ml of voided urine will be collected when a patient is hospitalized and identified as belonging to study group 1, 2 or 3. A second collection of voided urine will be collected for group 1 and 2 patients during routine further hospital stay or a routine follow-up visit.

The clinical samples from these patients will be processed and shipped to SRI International with the purpose of design (=phase A) and validation (=phase B) of in-vitro diagnostics for melioidosis.