Urticaria secondary to pulmonary melioidosis. Report of a case.

A 28-year-old white pilot from Southeast Asia suffered from an unusual syndrome of infiltrative cavitary pulmonary disease in association with severe urticaria. The disease was melioidosis. The patient responded well to tetracycline therapy with disappearance of the urticaria within one week and resolution of the pulmonary lesion in three months. Melioidosis, a disease that may now be encountered by American physicians, should be added to the list of chronic diseases to which urticaria may be secondary.