Burkholderia cepacia is an opportunistic nosocomial pathogen causing infections in immunocompromised hosts. Infection by Burkholderia in an immunocompetent host is a rare entity. We report a case of dengue and scrub coinfection complicated by B. cepacia bloodstream infection along with literature review of such infections in immunocompetent adults. Before the introduction of automated technologies, it was difficult to differentiate this organism from other aerobic Gram-negative nonfermenters, which have different intrinsic resistance profiles. Furthermore, Burkholderia has intrinsic as well as acquired resistance to various antimicrobials but not commonly to ceftazidime. To our knowledge, ours is the first case of multidrug-resistant B. cepacia infection in an immunocompetent host to be reported till date.
Keywords: Bacterial infection; Burkholderia cepacia; dengue fever.