Question: what tropical disease are you working on and what are the symptoms?

Jenny Hill answered on 10 Jan 2022:

The disease I’m working on is called melioidosis, it’s casued by a bacteria that is found in the soil in tropical countries and it can infect people through cuts in their skin or they can breathe it in through droplets that are formed when in heavy rain hits the ground. None of my friends or family have heard of it and I only came across it a few years ago, but epidemiologists think it kills around 90,000 people each year. It can make people sick in quite a wide variety of ways which is one of the many reasons it is a dangerous disease, if the symptoms are not obvious it hard to diagnose it quickly and give the right treatment. When it gets into the bloodstream it gives a fever, headache, joint pain and breathing problems. If it causes a infection in a tissue it causes swelling, an abscess and again a fever.