Melioidosis patient Jim Duncan with wife Del
Avid Far North Queensland gardener Jim Duncan would never have thought his green-thumbed passion may lead to serious illness.
The 84-year-old great grandfather, who lives in Newell Beach north of Cairns, is remarkably fit for his age – doesn’t drink or smoke and walks more than 6km most days with his beloved wife of 60 years Del.
But the past few months became a blur of illness, exhaustion and hospital visits after he contracted rare tropical disease melioidosis.
The infection is usually spread through contact with the bacteria present in soil and water, but people can also breath it in especially after significant weather events – and can lead to potentially deadly sepsis.
Jim and Del’s home in the beachfront community was inundated with more than 1.6m of rainfall in five days after Cyclone Jasper in December last year.
Jim’s beloved garden, where he grows a range of fruit and vegetables, was likely where he contracted the disease.
‘I got crook in April. I was dizzy and fell over and hit my head on the shed. The ambulance took me to hospital and that’s when I had my first dose of pneumonia,’ he recalled.
Del said Jim recovered a little over the following months but had a persistent cough which would not go away, before her husband suddenly collapsed in the backyard in August.
‘He was bending down connecting up parts to the hose and I saw him squatting down and the next minute he was lying flat under a tree,’ she said.
‘He couldn’t even raise himself up on his elbows.’
Jim added: ‘I couldn’t get up. I tried to roll over and thought I might have a better chance of getting up, but I couldn’t.
‘I just totally lost my strength.’
With the help of a neighbour, they managed to get him up before an ambulance took him to Mossman Hospital and he was diagnosed with a second bout of pneumonia.
‘He was just coughing and coughing, and I rang up the medical centre and said we needed an appointment for him,’ Del said.
‘The doctor picked straight away there was something else going on,’ Del said.
‘He rang us a couple of days later after the blood tests and said Jim needed to go to the hospital and to take his pyjamas.’
He was brought by ambulance to the infectious diseases unit in Cairns Hospital where the couple was told it was melioidosis.
‘We’d actually never heard of melioidosis until I got it,’ Jim said.
‘The doctor told us about 25% of people end up in the Intensive Care Unit.
‘It’s just lucky we’ve kept fit and I don’t smoke or drink.
‘I’m lucky, very lucky.’
Cairns Hospital infection diseases specialist Dr Simon Smith said Jim’s ‘robust’ immune system due to his healthy lifestyle, had helped ensure his case did not become life-threatening.
He said Jim was also part of a revolutionary trial being undertaken at the hospital looking at reducing the length of time melioidosis patients are required to take oral antibiotics during their recovery.
‘Currently we treat melioidosis in two phases – two to eight weeks with intravenous antibiotics and then three to six months with oral antibiotics, but the oral antibiotics particularly can cause side effects,’ he said.
‘We have been undertaking this study for two years now to work out if we can reduce the time for the oral medication by extending the IV antibiotics.’
Jim praised the multidiscliplinary team that treated and cared for him throughout his illness.
‘I’ve had such magic care, right from when the paramedics who picked me up, Mossman Hospital staff, the doctors from the infectious diseases unit, the nurses from the CHIP (Community Hospital Interface Program) and everybody else – just brilliant,’ he said.
‘I feel great now, just don’t ask me to go for a run.’
Jim has now completed his intravenous antibiotics and has commenced a course of oral ones.
He will also stay ‘on watch’ for two years, have regular blood tests and further chest x-rays and scans.
He has been given the green light to start walking again and get back in the garden, which he intends to do, albeit with protective gear.
‘I wouldn’t wish melioidosis on anyone, and their family,’ he said.
Dr Smith was invited to present the findings of his melioidosis study at the World Melioidosis Conference in Darwin this month.
Read more information about melioidosis, including symptoms and prevention.