A potentially fatal bacterium is on the rise in the Northern Territory.

There has been a rise in cases of melioidosis in the NT, which lives beneath the soil's surface but can become airborne due to heavy rains in the wet season.

The annual average of cases has surged to the highest level since records began in 1990.

The yearly average in the NT is now 60, more than double the average of 27 between 1990 and 2010.

There have been 39 cases of melioidosis in the NT this year.

“We attribute our increasing cases in part to the quite significant expansion of the suburbs of Darwin, with a lot of construction going on over the last 10 years of new suburbs,” said Professor Bart Currie, an infectious diseases expert from Royal Darwin Hospital.

“One of the factors related to potentially a lower number of cases this year than we predicted is that the building works have dropped off substantially in the last year or so,” he said.

Experts say more needs to be done to improve diagnosis of the infection.

Menzies researchers are working on a rapid diagnostic device for GPs. 

“We can get sputum from the patient or test their urine and potentially make a diagnosis in a doctors clinic or in the emergency department straight up that this is melioidosis, without having to wait for the sample to go off to the laboratory,” Professor Currie said.

More information is available here.