Melioidosis: recrudescence associated with bronchogenic carcinoma twenty-six years following initial geographic exposure.

Melioidosis was diagnosed in association with lung cancer in a World War 2 veteran 26 years after geographic exposure. The case history illustrates the prolonged latency, difficult diagnosis, and resistance to therapy of chronic melioidosis. Implications are that chronic forms of the disease will continue to surface in veterans of Southeast Asian conflicts for decades.