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A potentially deadly bacteria was found for the first time in water and soil samples in the United States, prompting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to alert doctors and public health experts throughout the country on Wednesday to take it into consideration when examining patients. The bacteria, Burkholderia pseudomallei, was detected in the Gulf Coast region of Southern Mississippi. Exposure to the bacteria can cause melioidosis, a “rare and serious disease,” according to the C.D.C.; about one in every 4,600 people exposed are found to have the disease, according to a study from 2019. The study also found that about 90,000 people die annually from melioidosis. (Oxenden, 7/27)

The bacteria was found on the property of a Mississippi man who had come down with the disease, melioidosis. Officials don’t know how long it had been there, but they say it likely is occurring in other areas along the Gulf Coast. U.S. physicians should consider melioidosis even in patients who haven’t traveled to other countries, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a health alert. (Stobbe, 7/27)

“This is a big deal because clinicians generally speaking only consider melioidosis in patients who have recent travel to an endemic area like Thailand, South Asia, Australia. They would not consider just somebody living in the Gulf Coast area who has never traveled, that they would have melioidosis,” Julia Petras, an epidemic intelligence service officer with CDC’s bacterial special pathogens branch, told STAT. (Branswell, 7/27)

Federal and state health officials on Wednesday confirmed the presence of a brain-eating amoeba in an Iowa lake after one swimmer was infected and later died. The lake will remain open as infections are rare, but officials will create signage that warns of the parasite. The amoeba, also known as Naegleria fowleri, was found in the Lake of Three Fires, which is located in Bedford, Iowa, according to a statement from the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Christen Jones, 7/27)