Rapid detection of Burkholderia pseudomallei, the etiologic agent of melioidosis, allows for timely initiation of appropriate treatment and better clinical outcomes. In the current gold standard, the culture method is time consuming and suffers from low sensitivity. Meanwhile, previously reported molecular assays are fast and sensitive, but their performance on isolates from Malaysia, an endemic region of melioidosis is under reported. This study designed oligonucleotides targeting orf2 of Type III secretion system (TTSS) genes cluster for the detection of Malaysian B. pseudomallei isolates and evaluated the assay on 95 local B. pseudomallei strains, 58 other microorganisms and 71 clinical specimens from patients. The developed assay exclusively detected all tested B. pseudomallei isolates with a detection limit of 20 fg per reaction (equivalent to ~2.5 copies). Subsequent testing on clinical samples showed that the assay detected all confirmed specimens with the growth of B. pseudomallei (n = 10/10). None of the negative specimens had a detectable signal of our TTSS-orf2 assay (n = 0/61). In conclusion, the present study provides crucial preliminary data for a subsequent study and should be considered as a potential alternative to current time-consuming culture method for the detection of B. pseudomallei.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) was the first herpesvirus associated to human malignancies. Despite the well-known association between EBV and malignancies, the prevalence of EBV infection in Malaysians with malignancies is unknown. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) was used to conduct a systematic review and metaanalysis of published data in this study. Studies reporting the occurrence of EBV infection in Malaysian malignancy patients were searched in electronic databases like PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar without year or language constraints. The study protocol was filed in PROSPERO (CRD42021273769). A total of 21 studies were included, with 1,036 EBV infection cases among 2,078 malignancy patients. The random-effects model was used to produce summary estimates. The pooled prevalence of EBV infection in Malaysians with malignancy was 36.3% (95% CI, 20.3 – 56.2). When the prevalence estimates were stratified by malignancy type, nasopharyngeal carcinoma has the highest prevalence (90.5%), followed by lymphoma (23.4%), and gastric carcinoma (10.0%). Male patients had a higher cases prevalence and most patients were above the age of 40. In Malaysia, many malignancies are increasingly linked to EBV infection. Screening for EBV infection in malignancy patients is therefore important to determine disease recurrence and metastases.

Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis caused by Vibrio cholerae non-O1/ non-O139 is a rare phenomenon. V. cholerae is known as a common aetiology of epidemic diarrheal disease and rarely causes extra-gastrointestinal infections. In this report, a 52-year-old man presented to our hospital with a clinical scenario for chronic liver cirrhosis with low grade fever and loose stools. V. cholerae was isolated from peritoneal fluid culture, which was further confirmed as non-O1/ non-O139 strain by multiplex polymerase chain reaction. The patient was successfully treated with antimicrobial therapy and peritoneal drainage. This case represents the first isolation of V. cholerae non-O1/ non-O139 strain from peritoneal fluid.